Set More Airport (LAX) Hearings, FAA Told

http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010601/t000045786.html

LAX: Scheduling three meetings on one day for comment on expansion
plans is an insult, say Antonovich, Knabe. They threaten to sue.

By JENNIFER OLDHAM, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe on
Thursday threatened to sue if the FAA doesn't schedule extra public
hearings on the $12-billion Los Angeles International Airport expansion
plan.
In a letter to be sent to Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey
today, Knabe and Antonovich complain that three simultaneous public
hearings scheduled for June 9 do not adequately allow residents to
comment on the 12,000-page LAX master plan, which includes several
environmental studies.
"It's an insult to the neighbors of the airport to schedule three public
hearings on the same day at three different locations," said Knabe,
whose district includes neighborhoods around LAX. "Obviously, their full
intent was to disperse the opposition."
The hearings are being held jointly by the FAA and Los Angeles World
Airports, the city agency that operates LAX and three other airports. If
the FAA doesn't schedule additional hearings, Knabe said, the county's
attorney will seek an injunction prohibiting the FAA and airport agency
from closing the 180-day public comment period on the master plan on
July 25.
The letter is the latest salvo in a contentious debate about how Southern
California airports will accommodate a projected doubling of passengers
by 2025. The expansion favored by the city's airport agency would boost
annual passenger traffic at LAX from about 67 million to 89 million by
2015.
City and county officials are divided about the plan to expand the
73-year-old airport, while residents of neighborhoods ringing the facility,
worried about traffic and noise, are firmly opposed.
FAA spokesman Jerry Snyder said the agency routinely considers
requests to extend the public comment period on airport expansion
plans. But this decision usually isn't made until the current comment
period expires, he said.
In their letter, the supervisors said an extension isn't necessary--that the
FAA and airport agency have enough time before the current public
comment period expires to schedule additional hearings.
City airport officials said they have received thousands of comments on
the plan and expect many more at the June 9 hearings, scheduled from
noon to 7 p.m. at sites in Los Angeles, Inglewood and Manhattan Beach.
"Attendance at a public hearing is not necessary to have your comments
included," said Paul Haney, deputy executive director of public and
community relations for the airport agency. "Written comments can be
sent in as late as July 25 and will be given the same consideration."
The future of the expansion plan will rest largely with the city's next
mayor. Both candidates have signed a pledge, drafted by an
anti-expansion group, saying the plan "should not be submitted to nor
approved by the city of Los Angeles."

 By northwood (12.106.64.19 - 12.106.64.19) on Friday, June 01,
 2001 - 08:55 am:
 

Candidates for Orange Council DO NOT want an airport?

Mud Flies in Orange Race

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010601/t000045664.html

Politics: City Council candidates Scott Steiner and Carolyn Cavecche paint
each other as pawns of special interests.

By EVAN HALPER, Times Staff Writer

The mailers once depicted her peering from behind a pile of lumber and
accepting hefty donations from sinister developers.
Now Carolyn Cavecche, a conservative running for the Orange City
Council in an officially nonpartisan election, is painted as a "liberal activist"
in cahoots with like-minded operatives out to destroy the GOP.
So is she a tree-hugger or a builder's pawn?
Whatever sticks.
Such is the state of politics in Orange. Cavecche is facing Scott Steiner in
a special election Tuesday to fill a seat left vacant after Councilman Mark
Murphy was elected mayor in November. The two candidates, who
campaigned in last fall's general election but failed to win enough votes to
gain a council seat outright, have nearly identical conservative platforms
and say mostly the same things on the stump.
But voters would never know that from the stinging mailers each
candidate is sending out.
Steiner, a deputy district attorney, warns that if Cavecche wins, the
council will be controlled by Shirley Grindle, a slow-growth advocate and
campaign finance watchdog.
Cavecche says that Steiner is a front man for supporters of a commercial
airport at El Toro.
It appeared for a while that the airport would be the dividing issue, with
Steiner in support and Cavecche against. Whoever is elected could tip the
scales on a council that's divided 2-2 on an El Toro airport.
But that dividing line has blurred.
Steiner is distancing himself from the Airport Working Group, a Newport
Beach-based organization that supports an El Toro airport--even though
the group spent $54,016 on mailers backing him and two other Orange
candidates in November's general election.
Steiner now says he opposes any plan that would bring flights over
Orange.
Never mind that his father, a former county supervisor, kicked $15,000
into the Airport Working Group's mail campaign last time around. That
campaign included the fliers implying Cavecche was beholden to
developers.
"We knew nothing about that independent expenditure," said Frank
Caterinicchio, a Steiner campaign advisor. "If we had, we would have put
a stop to it.
"Scott was never on record in support of an airport," he said.
So is Steiner opposed to an El Toro airport? "I didn't say that,"
Caterinicchio said.
Cavecche, who says she is against the county's plan for El Toro without
exception, accuses Steiner of hedging because he is indebted to the
Airport Working Group. She describes him as a product of the "political
establishment" who moved back into town less than a year ago to
advance his political career.
Cavecche wants Steiner's boss, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, to
investigate allegations that Steiner used his office computer to compile
lists of contributors and e-mail another prosecutor about campaign
strategies. "I guess if you live in a politician's family, you can do whatever
you want," she said. Steiner says the charges are frivolous.
His campaign charges that Cavecche, a library commissioner and
stay-at-home mother, is a puppet of local activist Grindle. It sent out a
mailing accusing Cavecche of joining with Grindle to wage "campaigns of
personal destruction against Republican leaders."
"It is time people learned that liberal activist Shirley Grindle is trying to
control the Orange City Council," Caterinicchio said.
Grindle, an advisory member of the preservationist East Orange
Neighborhood Committee, did endorse Cavecche last fall, but she is
sitting out this race. "Why are they sending a hit piece out on me when I
am not running for office?" she asked.
The latest mailing accuses Grindle and Cavecche of teaming up to file a
lawsuit against Steiner in an effort to block him from listing his endorsers
on the campaign ballot. Grindle said she had nothing to do with that legal
action and is considering filing a libel suit against the mailing's authors.
Yet, despite the nasty political back and forth, there has been little
disagreement over one of the biggest concerns of voters: the planned
development of East Orange, a 7,000-acre swath of unincorporated land
ripe for development and slated to be annexed by the city.
"We have been mouthing a lot of the same stuff on that," Cavecche said.
"We're both saying what needs to be said."
That would be general statements about Orange needing a lot more open
space. They speak in broad terms about considering every new
development in East Orange carefully.
What voters won't hear from either are ultimatums to the Irvine Co., the
corporate landowner of all of East Orange. Nor are they pushing for any
radical environmental measures.
"Orange is paved over," said Fred Smoller, chairman of the political
science department at Chapman University. "It is a real fight now to get
every piece of land we can get for a park."
But Orange, he noted, is a conservative city where voters panic at any
proposal that might raise taxes.
"I don't see any candidate saying 'no development,' " he said. "That's
Santa Monica, not here."

 By parrrotpaul (4.48.136.101 - 4.48.136.101) on Sunday, June
 03, 2001 - 04:05 am:
 

LA Times Letters...6/3/01

Flight Plans for El Toro and John Wayne

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010603/t000046360.html

Re "Hoping for a Victory Lap" (photo, May 19, noting the event to launch
a petition drive for a March measure calling for a park instead of an
airport at El Toro):

A giant park? Great idea. We can build one at John Wayne Airport. South
County people say El Toro isn't needed. They say we should use Ontario,
Long Beach, LAX and any other convenient airport we can find. So we
say John Wayne isn't needed either. We can rip out the runways,
taxiways and hangars as they want to do at El Toro. Then we will plant
grass and trees and build a pretty lake north of the San Diego Freeway
where the shuttle parking is.

Won't that be nice? The new terminal building? What a great shopping
mall it will be, with all that parking in those parking structures. We will call
it the Giant Park Mall.
John A. Gardiner
Costa Mesa
* * *
Without a major airport at El Toro, it is certain that John Wayne will be
expanded in the next few years to accommodate the air passenger
demand developing within Orange County and predicted by many reliable
sources such as the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG).
However, JWA will need another 700 acres to double its current allowable
passenger use by 2010. The condemnation, removal of existing
businesses and acquisition of this land bounded by the Costa Mesa and
Corona del Mar freeways has been estimated at several billion dollars.

That cost is just the beginning, because hundreds of homes, schools and
businesses in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach will be rendered unusable
without major structural and acoustical modifications costing many
thousands of dollars each. The total cost of this destruction cannot be
determined in dollars because it will uproot and affect many families who
have established their homes and built their lives in this desirable
community. In contrast, there is not a single home within 1 1/2 miles of
El Toro runways and the government-mandated noise buffer zone
around the airport excludes all residences.

Tom Wilson will probably not be around when John Wayne expands, but
Todd Spitzer, Larry Agran, Meg Waters, Paul Eckles and many of their
South County political cohorts will be and will suffer the backlash ensuing
from their reprehensible positions.
Ralph P. Morgan Jr.
Costa Mesa
* * *
There is a saying: be careful what you ask for. You may get it. Our
neighbors in Newport Beach should consider this carefully because if El
Toro international airport is built, they may be deluged with far more
noise than they now sustain.

Not only will they get hit from John Wayne Airport but from El Toro as
well. Why? Because airplanes will take off to the west over Irvine and
Newport Beach. Contrary to what it wants us to believe, the county will
not determine which runways will be used. Nor will the Federal Aviation
Administration, nor the air-traffic controllers, nor the airlines. Only the
pilots will decide which runway to use for each takeoff. The pilot is solely
responsible for the safety of the flight. Pilots will elect to take off into the
wind, downhill, avoiding terrain: in other words, to the west. Any other
runway on most days would be less safe, because the pilot must assume
there might be engine failure after liftoff. This is not pessimism but
prudence. Furthermore, the FAA dictates that the pilot must be able to
maneuver the airplane during this emergency situation without requiring
exceptional piloting skills.

A better solution for Newport Beach would be to extend John Wayne
Airport's runway over the San Diego Freeway. This would allow airplanes
to gain more altitude before reaching the coast, resulting in less noise.
The landing threshold remains where it is, precluding the use of larger
aircraft in the future (displaced threshold).

Newport Beach may be shooting itself in the foot if it thinks an El Toro
airport will bring peace and quiet. Wait until lumbering, fully loaded 747s
fly overhead 24 hours a day. Newport Beach ain't heard nothing yet. But
then it will be too late.
Jake Jacobs
Irvine
* * *
I have to laugh when I read comments from Newport Beach and Santa
Ana Heights regarding the airport. They are so positive that those of us
living in South County are arrogant airheads.
These people actually believe that you could put a park next to an airport
that has departing and arriving flights 24 hours a day seven days a week.
We should really enjoy playing ball and watching our children run and play
while the pollutants from the planes are contaminating the park, and the
noise from the jets would make that park a wonderful place. Get real,
people!

But the comment that made me laugh most was that all of South County
should move to Iowa! Now if we all did that, there definitely is no need
for an airport at El Toro, is there?

These people truly believe that the three pro-airport supervisors are
telling them the truth. Those are the same three supervisors who decided
that 67% of the people in Orange County are idiots for passing Measure
F. They are in effect using our money to sue us because they didn't like
that we passed a measure that fouled up their plans.

And wouldn't it be funny if the airport went in and, lo and behold, the
supervisors made a miscalculation (oops) and now the plane flight path
would be directly over Newport Beach 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, no curfew! How would Newport Beach and Santa Ana Heights love
that one?
Julie Benken
Lake Forest
* * *
Re "Supervisors OK $3-Million Deal for El Toro Info Drive," May 2:

Why is Orange County spending a whopping $8 million to publicize the
"need" for a second Orange County airport, when John Wayne Airport is
advertising its "crowd-free" status (http://www.ocair.com ad in The
Times, April 22)?
Julie Bixby
Huntington Beach
* * *
On the El Toro airport, for the moment assume that you have plenty of
money. What would you do? Move a lot of dirt and make the runways
right. Aircraft of the present and future have a lot of power--a normal
breeze isn't the main thing. The aircraft can take off and land with it or
against it.

So, make two widely separated runways to the northeast. At the west
end, the terminal and parking is a multistory structure whereby cars drive
in at street level and go up to the terminal/gate level. Aircraft, on most
days, land from the east and also take off to the east. The mountains
there aren't much of a problem, because the runways are already high.
On that small percentage of the hours of the year that there is a very
strong wind, either takeoffs or landings would be reversed.

Where would you get this much money? Lease some of the El Toro land
for commercial use, and sell quite a bit of the John Wayne land. John
Wayne would eventually be used only for private planes. The El Toro
airport would be one of the best in the world for the next 100 years.
Charles Gould
Fullerton
* * *
I have come up with a solution to what we can do about El Toro Marine
base. As I was driving through the base the other day I noticed all the
enlisted men's barracks and the officers' quarters just sitting there not
being used. Why not use the officers' quarters as low-cost housing and
the enlisted men's barracks for the homeless? The buildings from the PX
are still there and can be opened again very easily.

Until we have decided what we are going to do with El Toro, why not let
the people who could benefit from it most use it? Parks, a stable, gyms
and golf course could all be opened to the public and be enjoyed instead
of just deteriorating.
Taylor Oxee
Laguna Niguel

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.101 - 4.48.136.101) on Sunday, June 03,
 2001 - 04:13 am:
 

NPB Metro Letters...6/3/01

Airport Debate

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010603/tdp0019871.html
 
 

Supervisor Wilson should support Newport Beach

It is extremely distressing that Supervisor Tom Wilson, who is supposed
to represent the citizens of Newport Beach, is not supporting the
Newport Beach City Council in its attempt to protect residents from an
unreasonable expansion of John Wayne Airport. He is dragging his feet
when it comes to helping our city extend the settlement agreement with
the county.

We have always known Wilson makes his decisions based on what his
South County advisors dictate. Unfortunately, those views are often in
direct opposition to what is best for Newport Beach. That certainly is the
case with airport issues.

Remember when Wilson wanted us to support South County's Measure
F? At that time, he tried to make us believe he really worried about John
Wayne expanding and stated he would fight alongside of us to stop that
from happening. He wanted us all to vote for Measure F.

That line of thinking lasted just as long as it suited South County. Now,
those same people need John Wayne to significantly expand to prevent
the need for El Toro. So, that explains Wilson's recent statements and
actions. He couldn't care less about Newport Beach if it interferes with
the interests of South County.
CASEY RANDALL
Newport Beach

South County obviously lawsuit-happy hypocrites
Only South County anti-airport activists would have the gall to send out a
barrage of mailers promoting their ridiculous park plan and then file a
lawsuit to stop Newport Beach from spending money to refute the lies
contained within them.

When are people going to catch on that those NIMBYs are spending
millions of dollars to deceive the public in their effort to stop an El Toro
airport?
JAMES MARTIN
Newport Beach

City Council failed to maintain same caps
It appears that the Newport Beach City Council got greedy and is now
losing. If they would have worked with South County on El Toro, they
could have kept the existing caps on John Wayne. Maybe the City Council
should reconsider its position and build the coalition that is needed to
keep John Wayne in its current state.
DOUG BURFORD
Newport Beach

Taxpayers will end up paying for Great Park
I have received several mailings promoting "The Great Park" at the El
Toro Marine base site. The flyers are beautiful with their color pictures on
glossy paper depicting palm trees in a garden setting with winding
pathways and babbling brooks. Nowhere is there a mention of the cost
or how it is to be financed.

As a prior business man, I have learned the hard way of two basic
principles that are in the same category as death and taxes:
1. There is no free lunch.

2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

After reading each proposal, I am faced with the same question: Who
pays and how much? Is it the Feds, the state, the county, the city of
Irvine, the taxpayers? That is you and me. I don't know about you, but
when I vote on Measure J -- for Joke -- it will not be "No," but "[heck]
No."
ELMER COTE
Newport Beach

County headed down another slippery slope
In the '70s, Gov. Jerry Brown stopped new freeway construction. Now
look at our congested freeways and the cost of catch-up we are paying.
We have not built any new power plants in the past 10 years while there
has been an increase of 5 million residents.

Gov. Gray Davis and the Democratic California Legislature have no clue
how to solve the problem. We are again playing catch-up. The bulk power
cost was $7 billion in 1999 and topped $27 billion last year. Vice
President Dick Cheney recently said we had no new gasoline refineries
constructed in the past 25 years. Look now at the pump price of $2, and
it's still going up. Again, we will have to build refineries to catch up.

Why have we not planned for our future needs? The answers are not
simple but can be attributed in great measure to the NIMBYs. In the last
10 years, California grew by 5 million people and will continue to grow.
South Orange County grew 131.9% in the last 10 years. Now we are
faced with the same problem of growth on air transportation. We don't
have the necessary runways or new airports to handle the
ever-increasing demand. We had no new construction for some four
years; again we must play catch-up.

The Southern California Assn. of Cities on April 4 stated that 167 million
passengers will be using Southern California airways by 2020. Orange
County is projected to have about 34 million annual air passenger needs.
El Toro must fit into our future plans to satisfy our growth. El Toro has
4,700 acres and 1,800 acres of buffer, a $10-billion gift from the
government. If the residents of this county really want another park,
after the airports needs, there are still 2,500 acres left provided we are
willing to pay its upkeep: Estimates of $5,000 to $8,000 per acre a year
for its maintenance.

Orange County can't play catch up with the air transportation needs
because we just don't have any more land other than El Toro. It is time
for the responsible citizens of Orange County to step up and tell the
NIMBYS. Let's not have the same problems with our air transportation as
we have with our freeways, our gasoline or our electrical energy. The
future is now.
VIRGIL L. GALEY
Newport Beach

Supervisors only looking out for their careers
The May 14 Daily Pilot headline asked, "Will new JWA plan fly smooth?"
Not if county supervisors Tom Wilson and Todd Spitzer can help it. They
will fight the new plan because it would put more pressure on the county
to build El Toro airport.

Both Wilson and Spitzer are more interested in their political careers than
in safeguarding the citizens affected by air traffic from John Wayne. Isn't
it interesting that both of those supervisors will not support extending the
settlement agreement but aggressively oppose any size of an airport at
El Toro?

That position defies logic considering JWA could soon double or triple in
size despite being located on a mere 500 acres of land, while the 4,700
acres at El Toro and its extensive runways would be plowed under to
plant rose gardens.
CLAUDIA DOWNS
Newport Beach

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Sunday, June 03,
 2001 - 08:24 am:
 

ZERO airport letters published in the Register.

Brief mention of El Toro in a Gordon Dillow column on redistricting.

A news story on the Orange City election next week says both Cavecche
and Steiner don't want planes flying over Orange. Cavecche doesn't want
planes flying, period.

Steiner is really ducking the El Toro debate. His daddy is pro-airport
former Supervisor Bill Steiner. The Airport Working Group helped Steiner
the last time he ran, unsuccessfully, for the Orange City Council.

 By northwood (24.4.254.62 - 24.4.254.62) on Sunday, June 03,
 2001 - 10:23 am:
 

Housing Absurdities Times editorial

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/comment/20010603/t000046353.html
 

     With disappointing regularity, Orange County housing advocates
struggling to provide more affordable homes, and residents hunting for
that housing, are confronted with conditions that keep pushing their goals
further out of reach.
     The latest setback is in the federal Section 8 rental subsidy program
that puts a cap of 30% to 40% of a recipient's salary on what is spent
for rent. The local office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development pays landlords the balance.
     The county reopened the waiting list for that program Friday for the
first time since 1999. It expects 35,000 people to try to get on the new
eligibility list for rental assistance. Unfortunately, according to Orange
County Housing Authority officials, only about 75% to 80% of those
approved for the subsidy will be able to find a landlord to accept it.
     It wasn't that way about 10 years ago when landlords, with lots of
vacant apartments on their hands, offered incentives such as a free
month's rent to attract renters. With today's vacancy factor down
around 2% and plenty of renters willing to pay the average monthly rent
of $1,200 or more, it is harder for people to find a landlord willing to
accept the vouchers.
     Other golden opportunities for affordable homes, such as the former
Marine Corps airfield at El Toro, are being lost.
     More than 1,100 homes there once used by Marines and their families
have been sitting vacant for nearly two years while thousands of families
are forced to move to other counties, or wind up homeless, because of
the county's critical shortage of low-income housing.
     The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to consider converting
that housing to civilian use. But that sensible approach was shot down by
Irvine officials--a casualty of the bitter battle between the board majority,
Irvine and other South County cities over the future use of the
abandoned air base.
     The county board wants to convert the former airfield into a
commercial airport. Irvine is leading a drive to make it a giant central
park. But nowhere in the proposed park's 4,700 acres is there a
provision for affordable housing.
     Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista) tried to salvage some use of the idle
housing. He wanted it made available as interim low-cost homes for
Marine families at Camp Pendleton, where nearly 2,000 families are on
housing waiting lists. But several weeks ago the Navy rejected that
request. It said the El Toro homes were too far from Camp Pendleton
and the 30-mile commute, coupled with rising gasoline costs, would put
too much strain on too many "fragile household budgets." That's the
same situation that thousands of civilian workers on traffic-choked
freeways are forced to face every day.
     So, in a county that the state estimates will need an additional 75,000
homes by 2005 to meet its growth needs, the last really large piece of
vacant land left to accommodate a sizable number of homes lies fallow.
     In the meantime, communities try to cope with the housing need. In
Laguna Beach, where home prices are among the highest in the county,
the city is helping two key public safety and health officials buy homes in
the city. Because of its limited road access and constant threat of
emergencies, such as landslides and floods, the city decided it was crucial
to have certain emergency personnel living locally.
     The problem in Laguna Beach, as in so many other cities, is that city
staff, police officers and firefighters can't afford the high-priced housing.
The same is true for others whom residents so heavily rely on, such as
teachers, nurses and child-care workers.
     The business community has long been aware of the need for more
affordable housing to maintain an adequate labor pool. The problem
became so acute for the universities that UC Irvine and Cal State
Fullerton found it necessary to develop their own housing stock to attract
the faculty and staff they need.
     But it's not only market conditions that have been making solutions
so difficult. The NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude of many residents
and public officials also works to keep more affordable housing out of
reach. That's evident in redevelopment plans under discussion in Costa
Mesa. Residents want to replace old, crowded rental units with new
single-family homes. In public hearings they openly insist that
redevelopment rid the neighborhood of all the low-end renters. Some city
officials seem only too happy to comply, showing little concern for what
will happen to the people displaced.
     As long as attitudes like that prevail, affordable housing will remain out
of the reach of too many residents, and the entire community will be
poorer for it.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Monday, June 04,
 2001 - 08:07 am:
 

LA Times Commentary
Monday, June 4, 2001

Foes of an Airport at El Toro Have Their NIMBY Blinders On

By DANA ROHRABACHER
 

There's an unholy alliance at work in Orange County. NIMBY (not in my
backyard) Republicans have teamed up with environmental extremist
Democrats to orchestrate a well-financed and insidious propaganda
campaign. This odd-couple coalition is trying to persuade us that the
former Marine air base at El Toro would be unsafe as a civilian airport and
would lower our quality of life.

It's laughable, except that polls indicate the public is buying this baloney.
Reality is being turned on its head: Marine jets used the base for 40
years, but many Orange County residents now are convinced that it
won't be safe for airliners.

Yes, a military version of the Boeing 707 crashed shortly after takeoff at
El Toro on a drizzly-foggy morning in 1965. In spite of massive
anti-airport propaganda to the contrary, pilot error clearly caused the
crash. There were no civilian casualties from that accident because of the
huge no-housing buffer areas at the ends of the runways, which would
remain.

Then as now, safety wasn't an issue. President Nixon routinely flew to
and from El Toro between 1968 and 1974. There has been much made
of criticism of El Toro by some airline pilots--who leveled much harsher
complaints against LAX, San Francisco, Boston, John Wayne, Dallas-Fort
Worth and just about every other major U.S. airport.

Now the anti-airport coalition would have us believe that a "Great Park" is
better than a great commercial and transportation center. That's
nonsense, the product of a much exaggerated threat of noise and air
pollution. The fact is that El Toro still has one of the largest no-housing
noise buffer zones in Southern California. Besides that, an airport at the
heart of our county will produce less exhaust than the amount now
spewing from the millions of cars driving between Orange County and
LAX each year.

In addition, if the "Great Park" is created, hundreds of thousands of
additional housing units will be built in what is now the buffer area. That
traffic and environmental impact will be far worse than any airport.

The "Great Park" has other hidden costs: Not only will it produce no tax
revenue and suck up every spare dime in our county for years to come
at the expense of education, public safety and other important issues, but
the county may well pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a mandatory
environmental clean-up.

Worse still, the "Great Park" could end up just like New York's Central
Park--recreational during the day, but a haven for prostitutes, drug
addicts and other criminals at night. Build it and they will come.

An airport, on the other hand, would produce a steady flow of tax
revenue and good jobs. The airport plan includes a shopping mall with
stores and restaurants. With an airport, property values will rise. Without
it, taxes will go up, services will go down and property values will fall.
Orange County residents are facing a major decision that will determine
the quality of life for the next generation.

What an awful spectacle awaits if we turn loose the jackhammers to tear
down instead of build up. We don't know where the tons of runway
cement will be dumped. For years to come, at a cost of hundreds of
millions of taxpayer dollars, dump trucks will clog our roads and a gaping
scar will mar the heart of our county.

The "Great Charade" is well financed and professionally promoted. It is a
comedy to watch but a tragedy to experience, the irrational yet
intentional destruction of an asset worth billions of dollars to create a
nonfunctional billion-dollar liability. If this unholy alliance wins, Orange
County loses. - - -

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-huntington Beach) Is Chairman of the
House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Monday, June 04,
 2001 - 08:39 am:
 

Website viewer Derek Quinn responds promptly to the Times. Please post
your Rohrabacher comments on the special Dana Rohrabacher Message
Board thread, rather than in this Early Bird news thread. Click on:
http://64.226.131.145/discus/messages/1/164.html?991668437

 By BBraun (209.76.234.2 - 209.76.234.2) on Monday, June 04,
 2001 - 12:49 pm:
 

Check out the Register article in Monday's Local section regarding
Rohrabacher and his appearing at Camp Pendleton to greet the Pres. of
the U.S. wearing a safari outfit and puka-shell necklace. What a ••••!
what a poor example of a role model. What poor judgement. How could
anyone take anything he has to say seriously?
Is this the best we can offer for public office to represent the people? His
lack of judgement and bad taste in this situation only reflects on his
inability to reflect the will of the people. How do A--holes like Rohrabacher
get elected to public office. We can do better and can do much better
without the likes of him as a representative of the people.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.112 - 4.48.136.112) on Tuesday, June
 05, 2001 - 06:45 am:
 

Redistricting Could Strip Clout of O.C. Airport Foes

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010605/t000046888.html

By JEAN O. PASCO, DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writers

Several proposals to change the boundary lines of Orange County's five
supervisorial districts could dilute the clout of South County cities
opposed to an El Toro airport.

The maps are among a dozen options for district lines to be unveiled
Wednesday at a public hearing in Laguna Hills. A redistricting committee
composed of representatives from each supervisorial office will make its
recommendations this month to the Board of Supervisors.

Most of the proposals move political powerhouse Newport Beach out of
its South County 5th District. Most also either split Irvine between two
districts or move the whole city to another district with cities whose
officials back a new airport.

Irvine has spent the most money fighting a plan to build a commercial
airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and Newport Beach
has spent the most to support it.

Most of the maps unveiled so far also cluster the rest of South County's
cities, now spread between two districts, into a single district.

The maps all share another aspect: They place Santa Ana, the county
seat, within one district. The city, which has the highest percentage of
minority residents in Orange County, currently is split among three
districts.

"I think the motivation from Day One was for the pro-airport majority to
reduce South County's representation to one board member," said
Supervisor Todd Spitzer, one of two anti-airport supervisors on the
five-member board and who is seeking an Assembly seat in March.

A challenge by South County residents to such a move could be tough,
he said. Redistricting law encourages clustering "communities of interest"
together and protecting the political power of minority areas.

"It's going to be very difficult to argue a constitutional violation, because
a supervisor might be taken away, but [South County] is predominantly
affluent and white," Spitzer said.

The controversy over the El Toro airport has shaped county politics for
seven years. The airport has been supported by a bare majority of
supervisors since 1994, when voters approved new airport zoning. But
some issues, such as approving new leases for the airport, need approval
by four supervisors.

James Campbell, who chairs the county's redistricting committee, said he
submitted eight options based on population, not politics. One map splits
the county along its major freeways. Another keeps every city whole
within a district.
 

Maps Drawn to Reflect South County's Growth
The rest of his maps acknowledge an explosion of growth in South
Orange County in the last 10 years, said Campbell, chief of staff to
pro-airport Supervisor Chuck Smith.

Pulling Lake Forest and Mission Viejo out of the 3rd District--where they
are represented by Spitzer--and plunking them with the rest of South
County's 5th District makes sense, he said. The 5th District is
represented by the board's other anti-airport supervisor, Tom Wilson.

"I keep saying this is not an El Toro issue," Campbell said. "There's no
way to make four solid pro-[airport] districts. But others don't believe
me."

Among those unhappy with Campbell's proposals is Wilson, who could
find himself representing the entire southern half of the county. He said
he'll oppose any map that clusters South County into one district or
isolates Irvine from its southern neighbors.

"Why would you carve a city like Irvine up?" he said. "That sounds
vindictive. I'm certainly not going to sit still on anything proposed by the
1st District on how 5th District and 3rd District should look."

Redrawing lines that will last for 10 years to protect the airport would be
foolish, Wilson said. The fate of El Toro could be decided in the March
election, he said. That's because airport foes hope to qualify a ballot
measure that would change the zoning of the base to one that allows a
large urban park instead of an airfield.

"You can't base a 10-year decision on a six-month issue," Wilson said.

District boundary lines are adjusted every 10 years, based on U.S. census
figures. The 12 proposals will be distributed Wednesday at the county
committee meeting at 3 p.m. at Laguna Hills City Hall, 25201 Paseo de
Alicia, Suite 150.

Besides Campbell's maps, proposals were received from the League of
United Latin American Citizens, the Asian & Pacific Islander Alliance, the
League of Women Voters and Santa Ana resident Arturo Jacques.

For board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad, the most important factor may
be politics--but not the airport kind. Coad, who faces reelection in March,
is from Anaheim but has built political and donor bases in smaller northern
cities that would move to other districts under many of the proposals.

"She has five full cities now, and these are cities where she has most of
her political strength," said Coad's husband and office volunteer, Tom
Coad.

Cynthia Coad also is unhappy with some of the maps that move a
portion of Irvine into her district. Doing so would create instant political
enemies for Coad, an airport supporter.

For Diane Taylor of Brea, who created the map submitted by the League
of Women Voters, the main goal was righting wrongs committed during
previous redistricting efforts. Another was keeping cities intact.

"I was not concerned about where these political hot buttons were," she
said.

Taylor said she has attended every meeting of the redistricting
committee, which is dominated by interest groups and the supervisors'
aides.

"It's going to be interesting to see what moves ahead from this," she
said. "The public really isn't participating in these meetings."

Besides Wednesday's meeting, the committee will discuss the proposed
boundary lines June 14 and make recommendations to the Board of
Supervisors on June 20. The board will hold its first public hearing on the
boundaries June 26 and will select the final map July 17. An ordinance
outlining the new district boundaries is scheduled to be approved Aug. 21.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.112 - 4.48.136.112) on Tuesday, June
 05, 2001 - 06:51 am:
 

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010605/tdp0019926.html
 

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT-MESA -- The Airport Working Group is returning the check.

In a May 25 letter to Costa Mesa, the Newport Beach group said it would
return a $15,000 grant from the Costa Mesa City Council to pay for an
information campaign in the city aimed at communicating the importance
of extending flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

The council approved the funding, which was requested by the group, at
its May 7 meeting.
But the approval came with three caveats:

* The working group had to hold informational meetings in Costa Mesa;
* It had to discuss the dangers of expansion of John Wayne Airport;
* It had to refrain from publicly supporting an airport at the closed El Toro
Marine Corps Air Station.

The third stipulation, in particular, ruffled feathers at the working group,
an aggressive proponent of a commercial airport at El Toro since the
base was tapped for closure in 1993.

"The conditions placed upon the grant are unacceptable and we therefore
decline to accept it," the group's president, Tom Naughton, wrote in the
letter.

Naughton also criticized the council for "a profound lack of understanding
of the interrelationship between [John Wayne] and El Toro."

Costa Mesa Councilwoman Linda Dixon, who had not seen the letter, said
she was stunned by the group's decision. Dixon, who has said publicly she
does not support an airport at El Toro, said she would not have agreed to
fund the group without the ban on pro-El Toro commentary.

"I can't imagine spending taxpayers' dollars to lobby our citizens for an El
Toro airport," Dixon said.

But Naughton and other group members said it was imperative to discuss
the need for an airport at El Toro along with the future of John Wayne.

Newport Beach and Orange County have begun environmental review of
an extension of the flight restrictions, in an altered form, at John Wayne.

Newport Beach also has agreed to add four gates and 12 more daily
departures in exchange for a 20-year extension of the mandatory
nighttime curfew.

If El Toro is not built, group members say, John Wayne will be forced to
expand even further. Group spokesman Dave Ellis said the two issues
can't be separated.

"It's like hot dogs and a ballgame," Ellis said. "You can't talk about one
without the other."
Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan said he would try to revive the
grant by lifting the ban on support of El Toro.

He also criticized his colleagues who have pushed to keep El Toro out of
the discussion.

"It's naive," Monahan said. "If you won't let [the working group] support
El Toro, that's like laying out a red carpet to expand John Wayne."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.112 - 4.48.136.112) on Tuesday, June
 05, 2001 - 07:00 am:
 

Argyros added to tenants' lawsuit

http://www.ocregister.com/local/argyros00605cci.shtml

June 5, 2001

The Orange County Register

Newport Beach developer George Argyros knew his Arnel Management
Co. was holding back tenants' security deposits and discriminating against
minority tenants, according to a lawyer for a group of renters suing Arnel.
 

Argyros, who owns Arnel, was added as a defendant to the lawsuit
Monday, said Jim Trush, the attorney. The allegations in the lawsuit,
which seeks class-action status, have not been changed. However, Trush
said, evidence has been uncovered since the original filing date that
reveals Argyros was intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of
the business and knew of Arnel's practice.

An attorney for Arnel and Argyros said he had not been served with
Monday's motion and would not comment.

Arnel also is under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office in
the continuation of a consumer-protection case started more than a year
ago by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.142 - 4.48.136.142) on Wednesday, June
 06, 2001 - 06:22 am:
 

Fullerton will stand by airport group

http://www.ocregister.com/local/airport00606cci.shtml

June 6, 2001
The Orange County Register

A divided Fullerton City Council decided Tuesday to remain in the Orange
County Regional Airport Authority, a group promoting a commercial
airport at the former El Toro Marine base.
The council voted 2-2 with one abstention on a failed motion to quit the
group.

Councilmen Mike Clesceri and Chris Norby said they wanted out of the
group because membership implies they support the airport plan.

"We don't have a mandate to join a pro-airport group," Norby said.

"OCRAA doesn't look at alternatives," Clesceri said. "They will use our
name to support an airport."

But Mayor F. Richard Jones said the city should remain on the OCRAA
board until the March 2002 election when an airport initiative will be on
the ballot. This will enable the city to continue having input on airport
issues, he said.

Councilwoman Jan Flory said membership in the airport group is valuable
despite the incorrect image of the city's stand that it could convey.

But, she said, Fullerton should also join the El Toro Reuse Planning
Authority, a group opposing the airport plan.

She suggested the council's pro-airport members should sit on ETRPA
while the anti-airport members should sit on OCRAA.

Villa Park recently withdrew from the group; Tustin has done so as well.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.142 - 4.48.136.142) on Wednesday, June
 06, 2001 - 06:29 am:
 

Cavecche Defeats Steiner in Orange

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010606/t000047171.html

Council: GOP activist and airport opponent trounces Republican
establishment's candidate 61% to 35%, even though she was outspent.

By EVAN HALPER, Times Staff Writer

Grass-roots GOP activist Carolyn V. Cavecche, a fiscal conservative and
fierce opponent of an airport at El Toro, soundly defeated the county
Republican establishment's favored candidate Tuesday in the Orange City
Council election.

Cavecche, outspent nearly 2-to-1 by opponent Scott Steiner, will fill a
seat left vacant after Councilman Mark Murphy was elected mayor in
November. Cavecche won 61% of the vote, with Steiner getting 35%
and Michael Vogelvang capturing just over 3%.

Steiner and Cavecche also ran in the November election, but neither
garnered enough votes to win a council seat outright. The two ran on
nearly identical conservative platforms both times, and each battle was
marked by stinging campaign mailers and personal attacks.

"The people of Orange just decided it was time," Cavecche said Tuesday
night. "They wanted one of them."

Steiner, who moved back to the area less than a year ago, declined to
speculate how his campaign fell short. "I respect the decisions of the
residents of Orange," he said.

Steiner had accused Cavecche, a stay-at-home mother and library
trustee, of being controlled by liberal activists. Cavecche shot back with
charges that Steiner, a 27-year-old deputy district attorney, was a pawn
of forces trying to build a commercial airport at El Toro.

The Orange City Council was split 2-2 on El Toro, and it is widely believed
the victor in Tuesday's race will tip the scales.

Although Steiner started the campaign expressing support for an El Toro
airport, he backed away from that stance as the election drew near,
saying he opposed any plan that results in more flights over the city.

Cavecche campaigned against the county's plan for an airport at the
closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

That position made her a target in November of a $54,000 mailer from
the Airport Working Group, a Newport Beach-based organization that
supports an airport at El Toro. One flier manipulated a campaign-finance
report to look as if a personal loan Cavecche made to her own campaign
was a $10,000 contribution from a large contractor.

Steiner denied involvement with that mailer, even though his father, a
former county supervisor, contributed $15,000 to it.

"People were frustrated with Scott's answer when they asked him about
the airport," Cavecche said. "They thought it was a political response."

The latest campaign-disclosure reports suggest that the Airport Working
Group sat out Tuesday's election. The same goes for the Irvine Co.,
which will be bringing development plans before the city for 7,000 acres
in East Orange, one of the largest tracts of vacant land in the county.

There was little debate over East Orange during the campaign, with both
candidates advocating that proposals be reviewed with caution and that
as much open space as possible be saved.

Debate, instead, focused on such issues as Cavecche's fall alliance with
campaign-finance watchdog Shirley Grindle, whom the Steiner campaign
dubbed a "liberal activist."

Also at issue was Steiner's alleged misuse of government computer
equipment at his office to draft campaign materials. Those allegations
were forwarded to the state attorney general's office by Steiner's boss,
Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, who had endorsed Steiner.

Some observers viewed Tuesday's election as a struggle between the
county Republican old guard--represented by Steiner--and a new breed of
grass-roots Republicans, represented by Cavecche. One mailer sent by
the Steiner campaign accused Cavecche of "waging campaigns of
personal destruction" against county GOP leaders.

"This was a small-town Republican versus the establishment," said Fred
Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman
University in Orange. "Steiner's support was from outside the
community, with his father calling [in] every chit he had. Cavecche was a
local girl with no political experience."

 By Paul L. Hutchins (4.48.136.142 - 4.48.136.142) on
 Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 06:36 am:
 

Tie Vote Keeps Fullerton in Pro-Airport Coalition

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010606/t000047107.html

By JERRY HICKS, Times Staff Writer

By the narrowest of margins--a 2-2 tie--the Fullerton City Council
decided Tuesday to stay in the Orange County Regional Airport Authority,
which promotes building an airport at the former El Toro Marine base.
But OCRAA officials who attended the City Council session in fear of a
major defection didn't gain much satisfaction from the vote. The swing
vote, Councilwoman Jan Flory, said she would vote to drop out of
OCRAA if her colleagues didn't also agree to join the anti-airport
group--the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, or ETRPA--for informational
purposes.

But when no one would vote to do that, Flory did not rejoin the two
council members who wanted to drop OCRAA membership. Instead, she
didn't vote at all.

"I wasn't quick enough on the draw. . . . I dropped the ball," she said
after the meeting. That could mean Fullerton may drop out later.

OCRAA had 15 member cities, though only six support it financially, until
Villa Park recently dropped out, convinced that the current airport plan for
El Toro is not feasible.

Fearful that Fullerton would follow, OCRAA officials lobbied hard to
convince the council that it should remain a player.

"We are not a rubber stamp of the Board of Supervisors," said OCRAA
deputy executive director Jack Wagner. "We are a forum to provide
accurate information to all citizens."

But even the pro-OCRAA council members acknowledged that the group
is the chief promoter for a new airport. That is why Councilmen Mike
Clesceri and Chris Norby voted to pull out.

"By remaining, then the perception is that we are supporting the airport,"
Clesceri said. "And that's not the case."

Clesceri discounted Mayor Richard Jones' argument that remaining in
OCRAA is the best way to get the right information.

"Whether we are members or not, they aren't going to cut off your
information," he said.

More than a dozen speakers from the audience gave strong opinions, but
they too were split on the issue.

"You are known by the company you keep," said resident Frances Biggs.
"If you remain in OCRAA, you're saying that Fullerton is pro-airport. And
most here are not.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.142 - 4.48.136.142) on Wednesday, June
 06, 2001 - 06:41 am:
 

Airport forum will feature key players

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010606/tdp0019942.html
 

NEWPORT BEACH -- Always the hottest topic on the table, John Wayne
Airport will take center stage again tonight at an issue forum.

A panel of political leaders are scheduled to address the city's proposal for
the extension of flight restrictions at the airport. The forum will be held at
5:30 p.m. at the Riverboat Restaurant at 151 E. Coast Highway.

Though the flight restrictions won't expire until 2005, officials at several
government levels have begun work to secure an extension. The county,
Newport Beach and two airport activist groups -- the Airport Working
Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport -- must sign off on any extension
before the 1985 settlement agreement expires Dec. 31, 2005.

In exchange for a 20-year extension of the mandatory curfew on flights,
the city has agreed to ad four gates and 12 more daily departures at the
airport. The city has also agreed to raise the flight cap from 8.4 million
annual passengers to 9.8 million.

An environmental review for the city's proposal began May 8, when the
Board of Supervisors launched that process.

At the forum, Councilwoman Norma Glover is scheduled to appear, along
with Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva and Gen. Art Bloomer, the
executive director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority.

Bloomer, an avid proponent of an airport at the former El Toro Marine Air
Station, said John Wayne won't be the only issue discussed.

In his remarks, Bloomer said he will emphasize the importance of building
an airport at El Toro. The county has proposed an airport at the base that
could handle 28.8 million annual passengers by 2025.

Increases in passenger demand will require an airport at El Toro or an
expansion of John Wayne, Bloomer said.

"If you let John Wayne handle all that future traffic, there will be more
impact on the communities in the north" of the county, Bloomer said.
"They'll pay a heavy price."

The forum is sponsored by Speak Up Newport, a nonpartisan, nonprofit
group dedicated to promoting social welfare, educating the public and
improving local government.

 By northwood (24.5.152.204 - 24.5.152.204) on Wednesday, June
 06, 2001 - 07:19 am:
 

More cheap plane travel on approach

June 6, 2001

By JONATHAN LANSNER
The Orange County Register

Funny what a soft economy and a little market
pressure can do to a service imbalance.

Take, for example, Orange County's airline
business.

One argument for Orange County spending a
few
billion bucks to turn the old El Toro air base
into a quasi-international airport was that this
town's existing John Wayne Airport often
offered
high fares and marginal service.

Logic said that adding airport capacity in
Orange
County would lower fares and improve
service. Of
course, no guarantees were tied to that
promise.

Well, lo and behold! We have no new airport
yet.
However, this spring we do have new discount
air
service in these parts.

Southwest Airlines begins this Sunday flying
its
cheap-fare planes east-west from John
Wayne,
serving Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Aloha Air is now flying to Hawaii nonstop from
John Wayne, serving both Honolulu and Maui.

And if you want to add Long Beach to the
equation
- and you should - fast-growing startup
JetBlue
starts nonstop service in August from the
Queen
City to New York's JFK Airport.

That's three significant additions to travelers'
choices - and a trio of carriers that have
affordability high up on their respective
mission
statements.

Sure, some pampered traveling types can say
that
Southwest ain't most people's favorite carrier.
Since it's so good at what it does - and so
cheap
at offering the service - planes tend to be
cramped and travel harried. But Southwest
has the
clout to alter the economics of any air market.
Its decision to open up much of its national
network to O.C. fliers will permanently lower
travel costs.

A nonbeliever also could scoff at Aloha as not
being exactly an international giant. But direct
flights to tropical paradise do make a vacation
a
tad more enjoyable. Admit it. Nothing kills the
afterglow of a Hawaiian trip like dragging
yourself down the 405 from LAX.

If Aloha succeeds in making O.C.-to-Hawaii a
profitable run, you can bet that others will be
quick to emulate it - with either similar
nonstop
service or flights to other leisure spots.

And then there's JetBlue, which plans to make
Long Beach its West Coast hub. It's already
flying to JFK from Ontario.

These are well-funded folks who have a novel
twist - no-frill service as far as food is
concerned but first-class treatment
elsewhere:
leather seats and individual TV screens on
seatbacks for all. If JetBlue makes it here, it's
another victory for the traveler's pocketbook

Let's face it. For a while, airlines were taking
advantage of O.C.'s deep-pocketed
community of
voyagers. Fares from these parts have at
times -
and do, in some travel pairings today - run out
of whack with the reality of neighboring
airports.

But consider that passenger growth was flat in
1999 at John Wayne. Then, after a 4 percent
jump
in 2000, passenger traffic declined nearly 5
percent the first four months this year.

High fares translated to poor business
returns.
In the wake of that misguided tack, O.C. gets a
rash of air-fare discounters - without spending
a
dime on construction.

 By northwood (12.106.64.19 - 12.106.64.19) on Wednesday, June
 06, 2001 - 12:21 pm:
 

Survey: S. County Primary User of El Toro Facilities

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/calendar/20010606/t000047108.html
 

Budget: Study backs Coad's claim that the North pays for 'hobbies' it
doesn't use. She and Smith balk at subsidizing.

By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer

For months, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad has
threatened to vote against new funding for recreational programs--such
as RV parking, horse stables and golf--at the closed El Toro Marine base
because she believed people using the programs were only from South
County.
A new county map, created at Coad's request, proves she's right.
Based on ZIP Codes of base patrons, the map shows that the
recreational facilities are predominantly used by residents of Irvine, Lake
Forest and other South County cities, said Coad, whose supervisorial
district lies in the northern part of the county.
"It shows that people in the northern area aren't availing themselves of
the base's programs," Coad said. "I have heard a new slogan in my
district, 'North County pays while South County plays.' "
Last August, the board approved spending $5 million from the county's
general fund to lease the base from the Navy and keep the programs
operating. That delighted those who wanted the base open for such
programs as the horse stables, golf, RV parking and child care.
But budget projections for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, call
for the county to spend $7 million on the facilities, a subsidy that Coad
and Chuck Smith, two pro-El Toro airport colleagues on the board, said
they are not happy with.
"I know that child care is important. I'll give the South County people that
program because I believe it helps families," Coad said. "But as for the
three hobbies out there, I cannot ask people, taxpayers in Orange
County--especially in my district--to pay for hobbies for people in other
districts."
Coad said she would like to see how much a Great Park alternative to the
airport, pushed by South County cities opposed to an El Toro airport,
would cost taxpayers. Park supporters say a park at the sprawling,
4,700-acre former base would be built without taxpayer funds.
Opponents of the planned airport are gathering signatures in support of
an initiative that would replace the airport with a large urban park. They
hope to qualify the initiative for the March ballot.
When the board approved the master lease with the Navy for the former
base, supervisors predicted that fees from the community programs
would offset the county's costs in 1 1/2 to two years.
"We didn't want to kick the golfers off, the RV users and the people in the
horse stables," Smith said. "We felt that all those programs could break
even and now it appears that it's not going to happen."
Recreation programs, which generated $3.7 million this year, will
generate only $4.2 million in the next fiscal year, according to the
county's proposed budget.
Smith blamed the Navy, in part, for moving more slowly than anticipated
in turning over the deed to El Toro and removing asbestos from base
warehouses, which then could be rented out to generate income.
The county's 5-year lease for the base was a peace accord of sorts
between the board's pro-airport majority and two anti-airport
supervisors. Supervisors have the authority to change the lease yearly
and could do so on the anniversary of the lease this fall, Smith said.
To create the map, the ZIP Codes of golfers were gathered over a recent
two-week period. The users of the other base recreation programs were
already listed in databases, so their ZIP Codes were obtained from that
information.
The ZIP Code map frustrated Stephanie Delano of Irvine, whose family
fought to keep open the El Toro stables, where they board two horses.
"We pay for the stables too and they happen to be in our area," Delano
said. "If [Coad] did the same ZIP Code check, say at a county park in
northern county, she would find the same kind of information--that it's
used by people who live nearby."
Supervisor Tom Wilson, an El Toro Airport opponent, was incredulous
that Coad targeted users of a public facility for the sake of an argument
on El Toro planning.
"I can't believe we would actually discriminate against the usage of a
publicly available facility," Wilson said, adding that the county would
probably use the base more "if the board majority wasn't so determined
to see the base fail."
Wilson, who with Smith has fought to keep the base open for his
constituents in South County, said he is convinced that the three
pro-airport supervisors want the recreational programs to fail to bolster
their argument that only an airport would provide the revenue needed to
keep the base open.
Other airport critics called Coad's use of the ZIP Codes divisive and
"mean spirited."
"I fail to see if it matters if people from Fullerton or Anaheim or wherever
use the base programs," said Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the El
Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of nine South County cities
opposed to an El Toro airport. "I don't think people in Newport Beach,
Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach feel the beach is a playground only
for their own residents."
Instead of criticizing South County residents, the pro-airport board
majority should be congratulating them, said anti-airport Supervisor Todd
Spitzer. "They're the ones paying the fees and providing income that
would otherwise come out of the county's pockets."
Supervisors are expected to adopt a new, $4.6-billion annual budget on
June 26, and requests for additional funding have come from private
community-based agencies and county departments.
"We can't keep up this activity at the base unless we can break even,"
Smith said. "Cynthia's exactly right. She doesn't feel that her constituents
need to pay for golfing, RV storage, horse stables. I don't want to see
those people arbitrarily kicked out of there, but there will come a time
when the county can't subsidize that activity anymore."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.229 - 4.48.136.229) on Thursday, June
 07, 2001 - 05:13 am:
 

Orange Election a Blow to Airport

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010607/t000047354.html

Politics: Carolyn V. Cavecche's victory means a majority of council
members opposes the county's plan for the former El Toro Marine base.

By EVAN HALPER, Times Staff Writer

The special election in Orange on Tuesday turned out not to be just about
filling a vacant City Council seat. It was also an unofficial referendum on
the county's plan to build a commercial airport at the closed El Toro
Marine base.

And voters in the once overwhelmingly pro-airport city elected, by a
landslide, the candidate fiercely opposed to the county's airport plan.

Carolyn V. Cavecche's victory now means a majority of Orange council
members is opposed to the county's plan.

"Many people see those runways as turrets on a gun that can spin in any
direction," said Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department
at Chapman University in Orange.

Residents, he said, have realized that the county's plans for an El Toro
airport could mean additional flights over their homes.

The shift in Orange is a major political blow to pro-airport forces. The city
is now on the brink of bolting from the coalition of North County cities
created to support an airport at El Toro.

Villa Park pulled out of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority in
April.

Fullerton took a step toward withdrawing Tuesday night. And now
Orange.

"I see us pulling Orange out within the next 30 days," said Orange
Councilman Mike Alvarez.

The council had been split 2 to 2 on the county's El Toro airport plan
before Cavecche's victory.

Alvarez still lacks the votes to pull Orange out, because his ally Dan Slater
wants to remain in the authority to pressure the county to shift its flight
paths away from east Orange.

Slater's views are in lock-step with those of Villa Park Councilman Robert
E. McGowan, an airport supporter who got his city to pull out of the
coalition after it failed to push for an alternative plan that would direct
takeoffs toward less-populated areas.

"I'm ready to walk if the county doesn't acquiesce to a study of all viable
plans," Slater said.

The revolt within the authority involves several member cities that
support an El Toro airport but not the county's preferred flight paths.

They fear that the county's plan will send more flights over their cities.

County officials are refusing to consider a change in proposed flight paths,
saying it would create too much of a noise nuisance for 2,500 homes
planned south of the proposed airport.

Any such changes would also delay federal environmental approval of the
project until after voters decide an initiative that would convert the base
to a large urban park instead of an airport.

Supporters of that initiative are hoping to gather enough signatures to
get the measure on the March ballot.

Bruce Nestande, president of the pro-airport group Citizens for Jobs and
the Economy, is hoping that disgruntled authority members will sit tight.

Changes in flight patterns are still likely as the Federal Aviation
Administration proceeds with its review, he said.

"If they are in support of an airport they should wait for all the facts to
come in," he said.
"Obviously, we have professional differences of opinion here. Let them be
resolved by the FAA."

An unintended consequence of the El Toro plan falling through, Nestande
said, could be increased flights out of John Wayne Airport.

And that would have a major effect on Orange.

For his part, McGowan said a new coalition of dissatisfied authority
members could work to North County's--and the proposed
airport's--advantage.

"Why not get a general consensus among pro-airport people and then
get that approved, rather than get a really bad plan approved and then
try to get it changed?" he said.
Smoller said Nestande has good reason to be anxious about the potential
defection of Orange from the authority.

"If a pro-airport city like Orange leaves, there is no telling who is next,"
he said.

"This is a city where many people feel they would only get benefits from
[an El Toro airport]. This is very significant."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.229 - 4.48.136.229) on Thursday, June
 07, 2001 - 05:19 am:
 

North County Group Wants Voters to Alter Flight Paths at El Toro

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010607/t000047356.html

By JEAN O. PASCO, Times Staff Writer

A group of North County officials who favor changing the way planes
would land at the proposed El Toro airport said Wednesday that they
want to put their proposal before voters.

Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, a retired airline pilot and
air-traffic controller, said he has given up trying to convince Orange
County officials that changing the direction of landings and takeoffs at the
airport would make it safer, more efficient and more palatable to North
County residents.

The "Orange County Public Benefit Initiative," which supporters hope to
place on the March ballot, would amend the 1994 voter-approved ballot
measure calling for an airport at the closed Marine base.

The proposed size of the airport and a park around it would stay the
same. But instead of planes landing from the south and taking off to the
north, the initiative would reverse those flight paths.

That plan would send the planes toward the coast over Irvine Co. land
that's currently undeveloped but planned for at least 2,500 homes.

The developer has objected to McGowan's alternative, which he has
worked on over the last year.

Supporters of turning the air base into a large urban park already have
begun collecting signatures for their own March initiative to overturn the
1994 ballot measure.

McGowan said both ideas are flawed--the county's airport plan because
of its design and the park because of the costs to build and maintain it,
and its potential cost to taxpayers.

Park advocates say the park will not need public money.

"Everyone's looking for an answer to opposing the Great Park,"
McGowan said. "This is a common-sense alternative to both."

Until April, McGowan was a member of the Orange County Regional
Airport Authority, a 15-city coalition supporting an airport at El Toro.

McGowan and Villa Park quit the group after failing to persuade county
officials to fully consider his plan. At least two other North County cities
have threatened to pull out because of concerns about the county's plan.
 

County aviation consultants analyzed an airport alternative similar to
McGowan's--called the Wildlands Ranch alternative--during the airport's
environmental review.

Officials rejected it, saying it could bring noise over existing and future
homes in Irvine.

Plans are already underway to build those 2,500 homes. The city is
holding public hearings this month on development maps submitted by
the Irvine Co.

McGowan said his initiative will be submitted next week to elections
officials.

Supporters must collect 71,206 signatures from registered voters to
place the initiative on the ballot, unless supervisors vote to do so.

 By Paul L. Hutchins (4.48.136.229 - 4.48.136.229) on Thursday,
 June 07, 2001 - 05:29 am:
 

Costa Mesa might open El Toro discussion to public

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010607/tdp0019987.html
 

Robinson suggests the city hold forums to gauge residents' thoughts on
the proposed airport.

By JENNIFER KHO

COSTA MESA -- The city might start new public discussions about the
proposed airport at El Toro.

Councilwoman Karen Robinson, who has been noncommittal about plans
to build an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station since she
took office last year, announced at Monday's City Council meeting that
she wants the city to hold a public forum on the issue.

"I think it's about time we have a public forum to get a pulse for what city
residents feel about El Toro and John Wayne," she said. "I would like to
arrange some kind of town hall meeting on that."

The county has proposed building a much-debated airport at El Toro that
would be able to accommodate 20.8 million passengers per year by
2025.

Three organizations have been highly involved in the debate. They include
the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, which is made up of the South
County cities and wants the John Wayne Airport to expand so an airport
at El Toro can be avoided; and the Airport Working Group and Orange
County Regional Airport Authority, which both oppose any expansion at
John Wayne Airport and favor an airport at El Toro.

The Airport Working Group held two public forums about the issue in
Costa Mesa in 1999, but David Ellis, a consultant to the group, said he
favors another one.

"I think the more education, the better," he said. "I think the key issues
are the interrelationship between John Wayne, the aviation demand in the
region and El Toro.

"Some council members may be a little detached from what their
community thinks on the issue, but if Councilwoman Robinson wants to
hear it for herself, I think it's great," he continued.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon, who does not support an airport at El Toro,
said she would have no problem with the city holding another forum.

"I think if people want to discuss it and want us to know their feelings one
way or another, it would be fine to have one."

Councilman Gary Monahan, who favors an airport at El Toro, said he also
would support another public forum.

"It's about time we have public forums again," Monahan said. "Obviously
some members of council just don't get it, so we need to have more
information again before the next ballot campaign."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.229 - 4.48.136.229) on Thursday, June
 07, 2001 - 05:40 am:
 

AIRPORT DEBATE

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010607/tdp0020000.html
 

Agran's biggest win is just another facade, reader says
Regarding Paul Clinton's article "Getting ready to rumble" (May 31),
there's an error here, in my opinion. Larry Agran's biggest win was not
Measure F. It was a tentative victory, however, as you know the court
has indicated that it is an unconstitutional measure, something Barbara
Lichman and other members of the Airport Working Group were saying
from the onset and something that Agran should have known.

So it has been defeated in court. Measure F is not the law of the land,
and if you count that as a big win, then that's probably very consistent
with what Agran likes to present, a little shell game of facades. The Great
Park is the Great Pork; it's a big tax liability. It's a land grab by some
wealthy people in Irvine and surrounding cities around the Great Park who
want to have a lovely little 3,500-acre park -- about 20 times the size of
Central Park -- that they can enjoy with the benefit going to them while
all the good taxpayers of Orange County pay for it. Just a facade,
another facade, another illusion, just like Measure F was.
RICHARD TAYLOR
Newport Beach

EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard Taylor is the a vice president of the Airport
Working Group.
El Toro is all ready to launch flights

Now that the courts are systematically deflating the Measure F balloon,
the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority has revived the "surface wind
scenario" at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to keep the pot
boiling on the anti-airport program.

The surface winds at El Toro have not changed appreciably since the ice
age. When the architects designed the airport, they planned it to take
advantage of the existing meteorological and topographic conditions.

El Toro has been in continuous service for more than 50 years. It
serviced the largest and fastest aircraft in the U.S. inventory, including Air
Force One with the U.S. President on board.

I flew in and out of El Toro with C-124, B-707, B-737 and L-188 types
and experienced no problems. The air station was never found to be the
probable cause of an aircraft accident. This history is good and sufficient
evidence that gives rise to a rebuttable, if not a conclusive, presumption
that the airport is safe to support air carrier operations in accordance
with Federal Air Regulations Part 121.

Since El Toro in its present configuration complies with the necessary
Federal Aviation Administration criteria, now would be a good time to
commence cargo operations so any problems encountered could be
resolved on a small scale prior to commencing both cargo and passenger
operation.
ELMER COTE
Newport Beach

Driving to Ontario isn't convenient
On April 22, Brian P. Sullivan of Dana Point was allowed to wax
superficially on the El Toro airport issue suggesting that an airline flight to
London was available at Ontario International Airport ("El Toro airport will
never be realized," Community Forum). Incredible. Sullivan is obviously
not a frequent flier.

Sullivan also declares that the "cold, hard truth of the matter is that El
Toro will never be opened over the violent objections of the majority of
Orange County citizens." This Orange County citizen taxpayer for 43
years, one who has fought the expansion of John Wayne Airport with
aeronautical education and experience, says yes it will.

The next South County effort that follows the failed Measure S and
Measure F that will forever settle the El Toro issue has county, regional,
state and federal legal hurdles that will become impossible to overcome.

Sullivan's concern about the proximity of John Wayne and El Toro
airports indicates an unawareness of the proximity of three major U.S.
airports that are as close to each other and have three times the volume
of flights: JFK, La Guardia and Newark.

Sullivan then describes a short, easy drive from Dana Point in South
County to Ontario Airport. The freeway distance of that short, easy drive
is more than 70 miles and traverses some of the heaviest traffic points of
the freeway system, such as the Santa Ana Freeway through Mission
Viejo, Lake Forest and Santa Ana; the Costa Mesa Freeway through
Tustin, Orange and Villa Park; the Riverside Freeway through Anaheim,
Yorba Linda and Corona; Interstate 15 through Norco, Cloverdale, across
the Pomona Freeway, through the dairy country, then onto the San
Bernardino Freeway to Vineland and the Ontario Airport visitor parking lot
in San Bernardino County.

At any point of this easy route, the traffic can become stop and go from
just a California Highway Patrol car parked on the side. With an accident
even on the opposite side of the freeway, the traffic becomes stop and
go for miles.

Every trip to my granddaughter's in Pedley, off Interstate 15 in Riverside,
has resulted in traffic delays of sometimes half an hour.

There are no easy times to make the trip to Ontario except from 2 to 4
a.m.

RALPH P. MORGAN JR.
Costa Mesa

 By parrotpaul (4.48.137.96 - 4.48.137.96) on Thursday, June 07,
 2001 - 07:28 am:
 

"Laguna Woods Makes Its Airport Position Clear To The Feds"

Leisure World News 6/7/01

"Laguna Woods City Councilman Bert Hack announced May 30 that the
city had sent a letter to various federal agencies outlining Laguna Woods
position on the commercialization of the former United States Marine
Base at El Toro."

"The letter notes that the Golden Rain Foundation had taken the United
States to court and won the lifting of avigation restrictions on its land."

"It continues to say that in the wake of that decision, the city amended
its planning laws to remove avigation restrictions."

"This means, the letter continues, that the city is entitled to "full use of all
legal process necessary" to protect its citizens' health, safety, and
general welfare with regard to overflights by any kind of aircraft."

"The letter notes the city is ready to go to court since its nearly 100%
senior population is particularly vulnerable to noise and air pollution which
could not just impair health but increase mortality."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.135 - 4.48.136.135) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 04:41 am:
 

Navy to Help Remove Pollutants From Ground Water Near El Toro

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010608/t000047874.html

Deal: Seven years of talks over the drinking-water threat end. Also,
Irvine Ranch district will tackle farming contamination.

By SEEMA MEHTA, Times Staff Writer

Orange County water officials on Thursday announced a historic
$169-million deal with the U.S. Navy and the Irvine Ranch Water District
to remove ground-water contaminants, including a hazardous chemical
from the former El Toro Marine base that threatens local drinking-water
supplies.

After seven years of contentious negotiations with the Navy and the
Justice Department, the Orange County Water District board of directors
on Wednesday approved a settlement that calls for the Navy to pay
$27.5 million through 2045 to remove a subterranean plume of
trichloroethylene, or TCE, that was discovered migrating from the base in
1985.

TCE, a cancer-causing compound that is the most commonly found
chemical at Superfund sites, was widely used as a degreaser and aircraft
engine cleaner at El Toro and military bases around the country.

Water district officials said Thursday that the Navy also would retain
liability for any base-related pollutants discovered in the future.

"It was a difficult chore to try to get the Department of the Navy and the
Department of Justice to admit they were responsible for this," said Bill
Mills, general manager of OCWD, which manages the ground-water basin
below the northern part of the county. "The agreement, we believe, is
fully protective of everyone."

An environmental official with the Navy in San Diego declined to comment
on the settlement and referred all questions to the Department of Justice.
Attempts to reach the attorney negotiating the agreement were
unsuccessful Thursday.

The Irvine Ranch Water District announced it would pay $109.5 million for
a 40-year project aimed at reducing salt and nitrate contamination in
ground water near the base. Those minerals are believed to have entered
the ground water naturally and from past farming and ranching in the
area.

Ratepayers will not be affected, because the purified water will replace
costly imported drinking water from Northern California and the Colorado
River, Irvine Ranch Water District officials said.

The Metropolitan Water District has awarded $32 million in grant funds to
help pay for the $141.5-million treatment project.

"This entire area was unusable for years because of high salts, high
nitrates and, more recently, volatile organic compounds," Mills said. "This
will be a benefit for generations to come."

The TCE contamination is 200 feet underground and stretches from the
closed base into Irvine. The plume, which is a mile wide and five miles
long, creeps about a foot each day toward the county's water supply. It
would take the plume at least 14 years to reach the drinking water, said
Jenny Glasser, a spokeswoman for the county water district.

Cleanup Won't Affect Base Reuse Plans

The carcinogenic plume is only one of the environmental problems
emanating from the El Toro base, which the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has declared a federal Superfund cleanup site. The
ground-water cleanup won't affect base reuse plans.

The Navy will pay $7.5 million in capital costs, and $500,000 annually for
operations and management of the treatment facility, which is expected
to be built by 2005 and operational through 2045, said Steven Conklin,
OCWD's associate general manager for engineering and construction.

The Navy also retains liability for undiscovered pollution, which had been a
sticking point for years. As recently as last year, the Navy offered to pay
$8 million for plume cleanup "in exchange for not being held responsible
for any future liability that could result from 'unknown contaminants,' "
according to a state water board report.

In the agreement announced Thursday, the Navy agreed to a "reopener"
clause that allows county water officials to return to the federal
government if pollution is worse than current studies show or if new
pollution is discovered, Mills said. The Navy also agreed to buy a
$20-million insurance policy.

"We felt the public deserved the protection to have the ability to go back
under dire circumstances to the federal government," said Paul D. Jones,
general manager of the Irvine Ranch Water District.

But EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano said that even without a liability
clause, a "polluter is responsible for the pollution that they leave--now
and forever."

Ground water containing the cancer-causing chemical will be piped to a
new treatment facility to be built near Sand Canyon Avenue and Barranca
Parkway. The water will be treated by reverse osmosis, or sifting it
through screens to remove contaminants.

The water then will be trickled over Ping-Pong-like plastic balls while air is
blown through them. Using the air and carbon filters, the TCE is trapped
and burned.

The treated water next will be disinfected with chlorine, then piped for
agricultural use. The process is expected to yield 2,500 acre-feet of
water per year, enough to cover 2,500 acres with one foot of water.
One acre-foot is enough to supply two families for a year.

In a second treatment facility to be built at the same location, salt and
nitrate-contaminated water will be treated by reverse osmosis, then
disinfected with chlorine and ammonia, Conklin said. That is expected to
produce 6,400 acre-feet of water a year, enough to supply 12,800
average families.

The Irvine Ranch Water District's board of directors is expected to vote
Monday on the agreement. The Justice Department, Department of the
Navy and the EPA also must approve.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.135 - 4.48.136.135) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 04:50 am:
 

Great Park Supporters Put Petitions on Hold

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010608/t000047899.html

Supporters of a ballot measure to build an urban park at the closed El
Toro Marine base said Thursday they will stop collecting signatures
temporarily after a challenge to their petitions.

Attorneys for Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, which supports an
international airport at the former military base, said a revised copy of
the park initiative was submitted to county officials without a required
map of new zoning proposed for the 4,700-acre base.

"They keep putting up roadblocks to try and stop the will of the people,"
petition organizer Len Kranser said Thursday.

County counsel Laurence M. Watson was reviewing the challenge but
could not be reached Thursday for comment.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.135 - 4.48.136.135) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 05:03 am:
 

Super Suckers
by Anthony Pignataro

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/01/40/news-pignataro.shtml

Tired of defending the county’s indefensible El Toro International Airport,
the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group has once again spent
taxpayer money on a mailer attacking the South County’s proposed
Great Park Initiative. Featuring a great big lollipop labeled "Great Park"
over the P.T. Barnum quotation "There’s a sucker born every minute,"
the mailer is based on two hapless sources of anti-park propaganda.

The first is Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut’s May
6 editorial blasting the proposed Great Park as "the Great Pork"—a
potential boondoggle concocted by "Irvine’s left-wing Mayor Larry Agran"
that would consume "gobs of taxpayer funds" in its quest to build
meadows, gardens, ball fields, schools and museums. Greenhut, who
clearly prefers the "significant commercial development" of proposed
nonaviation El Toro reuse plans, ultimately opines that anti-airport forces
are nothing but leftist slow-growth types who want only to "put a fence
around the former base and use it as a buffer zone against growth and
development."

If only it were true. In fact, it’s a minor miracle that so many South
County elected officials—the vast majority of whom are conservatives
who never met a developer they didn’t love—now advocate the Great
Park. The truth, of course, is that most South County officials would
prefer to fill El Toro with the same sprawl that overruns their own cities,
but they’re smart enough to acknowledge both the polls that show
overwhelming support for the Great Park and the need to present a
united front against the county’s massive and well-funded airport
program office.

The anti-Great Park mailer also includes a full reprinting of a letter to the
editor written by Reed Royalty, a longtime development shill and
president of the so-called Orange County Taxpayers Association. That
group supported both the El Toro International Airport and the failed
1995 Measure R tax increase designed to get the county out of municipal
bankruptcy.

In the letter, Royalty praised Greenhut’s editorial and pointed to San
Francisco’s conversion of the 100-acre army base at Crissy Field into a
park as a major reason to doubt South County’s Great Park initiative.
"Using taxpayers’ money and private donations," Royalty wrote, the
National Park Service built the park for $34 million. Extrapolating that
figure, Royalty calculated that the Great Park would cost $1.6 billion.

Even assuming Royalty’s $340,000-per-acre park-development cost is
correct, the Great Park would actually pencil out to something like $1.25
billion, since 1,000 acres of the base were dedicated open space by the
Marines and would receive no development even should the county build
its airport. Nevertheless, Crissy Field is important to look at—not as an
example of the high cost of building parks but as testament to the use of
private donations to offset taxes.

Virtually all of the money used to convert Crissy Field came from private
donations. In addition, 4,000 volunteers worked for the past three years
to restore the land’s natural marsh ecology. There is every reason to
believe, once the Navy Department has finished its hazardous-material
cleanup, that a similar effort on a much larger scale can be made at El
Toro.

But none of this is really at issue. If Royalty and Greenhut want to root
out wasteful public spending, they should look no further than the
county’s plan for El Toro International. It will cost billions of dollars to build
new runways, hangars and air-traffic control facilities, to say nothing of
the hotels and commercial development planners envision. Truly a plan
for suckers.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.137.179 - 4.48.137.179) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 07:33 am:
 

Water cleanup deal struck

http://www.ocregister.com/local/water00608cci2.shtml

The Navy and two water districts will work together at El Toro.
June 8, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

A 5-square-mile basin of ground water contaminated by cancer-causing
chemicals from the former El Toro Marine Corps base will be cleaned up
with a new $29million treatment plant under a deal announced Thursday.

The agreement between two local water districts and the federal
government ends 16 years of wrangling over responsibility for the toxic
water 200 feet below Irvine.

The base is the last remaining federal Superfund site in Orange County.

Once the chemicals - believed to be from solvents used at the base - are
removed from the water, the Irvine Ranch Water District plans to sell the
water for irrigation and industrial uses.

A different part of the same plant will be used by the district to remove
salt and minerals from adjacent fields of ground water, and that water will
be piped to local homes for personal use.

"This entire area here has been unavailable for years, but it can be
cleaned up and reused,'' said William R. Mills Jr., general manager of the
Orange County Water District. "I can't tell you how pleased I am.''

Navy officials declined to comment Thursday, directing inquiries to
Department of Justice officials, who could not be reached.

Local water officials said they will pay about $21 million toward the plant,
with the remaining $8 million coming from the Navy.

But Irvine Ranch Water District officials said their net costs will not
increase because as the plant provides new local supplies of water, the
district will not have to buy as much water from outside sources.

Paul Jones, general manager of the water district, said the plant will
provide about 8,900 acre-feet a year of water. An acre-foot is 325,900
gallons, or the amount a family of five typically uses each year.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.137.179 - 4.48.137.179) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 07:40 am:
 

Missing map prompts attack on park plan
 

http://www.ocregister.com/local/toromap00608cci9.shtml

Airport backers say the omission invalidates a petition drive on El Toro.
June 8, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

The petition drive to build a park at the former El Toro Marine base may
have another technical flaw - a missing map of the project.

Backers of an airport at El Toro attacked the Central Park and Nature
Preserve Initiative on Thursday, saying the ballot measure filed last month
is legally flawed and should be thrown out.

FredricWoocher, an attorney for a pro-airport group, wrote county
Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever on Wednesday, saying that because a
map referred to in the initiative was not included with documents filed
with the registrar, the initiative is invalid.

If he and his clients are right - and initiative backers insist they are not -
thousands of signatures collected to qualify the measure for the March
election could be voided and the entire petition drive might have to start
over.

"To be honest, we could have waited and sandbagged them after they
filed all their signatures,'' said Woocher, an attorney for Citizens for Jobs
and the Economy. "We thought it would be more appropriate to bring it
to everybody's attention right now.''

Two other problems have delayed the petition drive, which had its kickoff
three weeks ago.

One was a reference to a nature preserve on the northwest corner of the
park - when it should have said northeast. Another was failing to have
certain words in bold.

Both were discovered by initiative backers trying to make it immune to
legal challenges, but both caused delays as well.

During the revisions, backers of the park initiative have had to refile their
paperwork. They insist the map was included.

"The two individuals present when the initiative was turned in will attest
there was a map,'' said Len Kranser of Dana Point, a spokesman for the
drive. "What became of it after we turned it in is a mystery. We deny the
allegation that there is no map, and our attorneys are studying the
question of what you do in a situation like this one.''

Lever said Thursday that her staff did not receive a map with the
amended initiative and that no map is on file with her office. She said she
has referred the matter to Barbara Stocker, a county attorney, for
direction on what to do.

Stocker declined to give a legal opinion on the dispute but did say that
when she reviewed the amended initiative, she relied on the map that
was filed with the initial ballot measure and that she had not received a
new map with the new measure.

Kranser said the initiative backers will fight any effort to toss out the
current initiative and signatures gathered in support of it.

"People are getting very annoyed by these attempts to try to thwart
them from exercising their will with technicalities," he said.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Friday, June 08,
 2001 - 06:17 pm:
 

Daily Pilot, June 7-
El Toro overshadows proposed JWA settlement deal,
Officials at Newport forum addressing John Wayne issues reiterate their
support for
an airport at the closed base.

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT HARBOR -- It didn't take long for policymakers discussing the
future
of John Wayne Airport on Wednesday to emphasize the importance of an
airport at the
closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
Even though those discussing the issue at a forum held in the Riverboat
Restaurant's
water-level lounge represent areas in North County, the discussion
proved once again
how intertwined the two issues have become.
"If there's not an airport at El Toro, the pressure for growth in Orange
County will
be placed on John Wayne," Supervisor Jim Silva said. "If we do have El
Toro, citizens
living around John Wayne will be protected."
Nonprofit group Speak Up Newport organized the well-attended event,
which saw
more than 100 pack the restaurant.
Silva, whose 2nd District includes Costa Mesa, was joined by Newport
Beach
Councilwoman Norma Glover and Art Bloomer, the executive director of
the Orange
County Regional Airport Authority.
Speakers also urged voters to defeat a South County ballot measure
looming on the
horizon. Leaders in the south are mounting the initiative, which would
shift zoning at the
base to allow for an Orange County Central Park, for the March ballot.
"Vote twice," Silva said jokingly.
In remarks stemming from the El Toro talk, Glover said Newport Beach is
under the
gun to cement a deal to extend the flight restrictions at John Wayne.
If a deal is not in place before March, Glover said, the airport's cap on
passengers
and mandatory nighttime curfew could be in jeopardy.
"If we lose that initiative before we have an extension in place," Glover
said, "we will
probably never get an agreement."
Orange County and Newport Beach have tentatively agreed on an
extension of the
1985 settlement deal. In exchange for a 20-year extension of the
curfew, which will
expire in 2005, Newport Beach has agreed to bump up the passenger
cap from 8.4
million to 9.8 million annually.
Newport Beach has also agreed to add four more flight gates to the
terminal's
current 14 and 12 more daily departures.
Speakers also said they hoped other affected parties, including the airlines
and
Federal Aviation Administration, will buy off on the deal.
The county's Board of Supervisors began environmental review of the
extension
May 8.
The panelists took audience questions for the bulk of the hourlong forum,
which was
moderated by Daily Pilot Publisher Tom Johnson.
Johnson congratulated the speakers for tackling the extension.
"I would like to thank them all for their commitment to this worthy goal,"
Johnson
said.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.178 - 4.48.136.178) on Sunday, June 10,
 2001 - 04:17 am:
 

Airport or Park, It's Time to Get in Touch With Our Feelings

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010610/t000048404.html

By DANA PARSONS

Well, what are you, a visionary or a sucker? Do you even know? Don't
you think you'd better find out?

Or, maybe you'd like to know if you're a clear-eyed realist or an
arrogant, thoughtless bully? Again, it's always good to know your true
self.

In the months ahead, Orange County residents likely will have a rare
chance to flesh out their own personality profiles by casting a single vote.
Depending on how they feel about a commercial airport at the
abandoned El Toro Marine base, they'll find themselves designated as one
of the above--like it or not.

Or, whether it is true or not. Because as soon as they go on record
regarding the airport question, lots of other folks will be ready to reveal
their deepest thoughts and true motivation.

Orange County voters, begin preparing for your ballot-box Rorschach
test.

And you thought your vote on a measure supporters are trying to qualify
for the March ballot would be a simple thumb up or down on a new
airport or a large new park and cultural center at the former base?

Not a chance. That's not how politics is played these days, and especially
not when millions of dollars and the lifestyles of the next few generations
are on the line.

Not long ago, I wrote about a series of mailers that touted the Great
Park plan for the base. The park's prime movers at this point are South
County residents vehemently opposed to an airport at El Toro. They
want voters countywide to get behind the park and scuttle the airport.

It was just a matter of time, I figured, until the airport supporters
launched their strike. Now, it has come in the form of counter-mailers
and TV ads.

The El Toro battle lines are beginning to firm up, with a recent mailer
setting the tone for the pro-airport side.

The one I got features a raspberry-colored lollipop on the front, with
"Great Park" embossed on it. The caption underneath reads: "There's a
sucker born every minute."

In case you missed the point, streamed across inside of the mailer is this:
"Great Park supporters hope P.T. Barnum was right." It was Barnum, the
master 19th century American showman, who was credited with coining
the phrase about the proliferation of suckers in our midst.

We've all heard about the politics of personal destruction. Even if the
phrase is a bit overheated and overused, we get the point: Why bother
with your opponent's position on the issues when you can nail him or her
on personal matters.

"My opponent can't be trusted."

"My opponent is in league with special interests."

The unfolding airport debate apparently will expand the art form to attack
not just individuals, but to insult large blocs of people.

The anti-airport people know how to play the game too.

While the recent mailers, to their credit, have focused on the merits of
their park plan, the anti-airport side has long sounded the theme that the
three-member Board of Supervisors majority that favors the airport is
ramming the airport down people's throats. They're doing that, so the
argument goes, because the majority has been blinded by big-money
business interests.

As for others who support the airport, well, they simply don't care about
the feelings of South County residents.

Nevermind that some airport supporters might actually believe it is in the
county's long-range interest to build the airport and that the impact on
South County won't be as severe as people think.

"Nevermind" is the operative phrase. As this campaign revs ever higher in
the months ahead, you won't hear either side cut the other much slack.

Great Park supporters can't possibly be civic-minded visionaries who
want to create a memorable aesthetic and cultural legacy. Nope, they're
suckers.

Airport supporters can't possibly be visionaries of another stripe--people
who believe this growing county needs a new airport for the new
millennium. Nope, they're self-interested cynics who don't care what
happens to people south and east of the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Rather than a duel of conflicting ideas, the El Toro debate will become a
duel between suckers and bullies.

Cast your vote and join one camp or the other, like it or not.

The El Toro/Great Park mailers have begun flying. Look out below.

 By Paul L. Hutchins (4.48.136.178 - 4.48.136.178) on Sunday,
 June 10, 2001 - 04:28 am:
 

El Toro and Rohrabacher's Commentary

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010610/t000048409.html

.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has displayed a true politician's knack for
half-truths and twisted facts in his attack on proponents of a Great Park
at El Toro (Commentary, June 4). First, he derides critics of the airport's
safety as "environmental extremists," but it takes a very odd point of
view for anyone to consider the airline pilots' association and the FAA as
either "environmentalists" or "extremists." All of those organizations
have expressed doubts about the safety of the county's plan.
He states that military jets have used El Toro for 40 years, so it must be
safe for commercial aircraft. The congressman, who fancies himself an
aerospace expert, does not appear to comprehend the difference in
performance capabilities between military and commercial aircraft. After
all, military jets have also taken off from aircraft carriers for 40 years, but
that doesn't mean it's safe for a 737.
The congressman pooh-poohs El Toro's worst aviation disaster to date
as merely pilot error. What he fails to understand is that pilots are
human, and humans make mistakes all the time. That's why takeoff and
landing paths are designed to provide the greatest margin of safety
allowable. El Toro's takeoffs (uphill, with tail winds, into rising terrain)
don't have the appropriate margins.
To design an airport that allows no margin of error for a pilot to recover
from a mistake is negligent and criminal. Does Rohrabacher believe that
no pilot will ever make a mistake in the future?
The congressman grows even more ludicrous when he touts the benefits
of an airport. He claims it will provide lots of jobs, although most of those
jobs will be low-wage positions that would not pay enough for workers
to afford to live in Orange County. As the piece de resistance, he states
that the airport will also have (ta-da) a shopping mall! Is there any sane
person who believes that the one thing Orange County is lacking is
another shopping mall?
Arnold Burke
Lake Forest
 

* * *
Rohrabacher's diatribe on El Toro once again epitomizes the depths to
which the pro-airport faction will stoop.
He acknowledges the tragic crash of the Marine Corps transport in the
early '60s, killing all aboard, but writes off the safety issue as having a
no-housing buffer zone. Well that may be all well and good for those on
the ground, but what about the passengers in the airliner? I guess
Rohrabacher considers them expendable. Well, the pilots don't, and they
are the ones he chastises for raising these significant safety concerns.
And by the way, President Nixon departed to the south, away from the
mountains, right over Leisure World, one of the largest concentrations of
senior citizens in the country. But not to worry, Rohrabacher would have
you believe that there is no issue with noise, that it is exaggerated. Even
pro-airport Supervisor Chuck Smith admitted during the flight
demonstrations while visiting Aliso Viejo that this was a very serious
problem.
Gary Thompson
Council member
Rancho Santa Margarita
Board member, ETRPA
 

* * *
There is little that can be added to Rohrabacher's article about NIMBYs,
except to say that the same kind of people who oppose the project are
also in favor of the proposed El Toro international airport. What else is
new? The pro-airport coalition has Democrats, Republicans, NIMBYs and
environmentalists, business interests, working people, retired citizens,
new citizens, and yes, even home-building citizens, all uniformly opposed
to crime in the parks and environmental racism as implicitly promoted by
the anti-airport extremists.
The population of North County, where the victims of John Wayne Airport
live, is more diverse than South County. The same can be said for LAX
and Ontario, other airports Irvine promotes. One environmentalist I
know, who is worried about continued damage to Newport Bay by the
airplanes, also carefully points out, they don't have a bay over at El Toro.

As the arguments for the El Toro airport are made, we must pray that
our leaders soon will open the airport, which may be unpopular with
some, but which will be best for the country and the nation's air system
in the long run.
Donald Nyre
Newport Beach
 

* * *
As a Leisure World resident of nearly 20 years, I can testify that a U.S.
Marine Corps F/A-18 jet that did not land or take off between 10 p.m.
and 7 a.m. is not the same as a 747 taking off and landing over us 24
hours a day. Leisure World residents fought to keep the Marines at El
Toro, knowing that powerful political forces were pulling strings behind the
scenes to remove the Marines in order to close John Wayne and move it
to El Toro. Rohrabacher should obtain a copy of the Airport Site
Consensus Team's 315-page "Final Report" of March 12, 1990, that was
presented to the Board of Supervisors on April 3, 1990, and rejected the
Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro as a site for a commercial airport. This
FAA-financed, $700,000, 20-month, in-depth search for a commercial
airport site in Orange County was conducted by more than 300
community leaders from all areas of the county from May 1988 through
December 1989.
The study group achieved a consensus on 21 site selection criteria,
examined 31 variations at 24 locations and narrowed the list down to
four candidate sites including March Inland Port and South Camp
Pendleton. El Toro was dropped from consideration in July 1989. As a
commercial, long-haul airport, MCAS-ET ranked 14 among 17 sites; as a
medium-haul airport, 15 out of 17.
Dave Blodgett
Laguna Woods
 

* * *
Having recently read the opinion of Rohrabacher about the El Toro airport
plan, I must say that he does know how to strike fear into the hearts of
the citizenry with bogus facts and logic. But, for me, he strikes fear not in
the way he intended. I am now frightened by the fact that this man, with
the wild fear tactics he used in his written newspaper opinion, is offering
opinions to the Congress and helping make decisions that affect the
United States of America. A troubling concept to ponder, indeed.
Dick Campbell
Laguna Niguel
 

* * *
So Rohrabacher considers the alliance between Republicans and the
anti-El Toro airport groups to be "unholy." This comes as no surprise
coming from an ultraconservative who represents unbridled growth in
Orange County. God forbid that Republicans, Democrats and
Independents can find common ground on this issue. Maybe common
sense--reasoning among well-intentioned people--can transcend partisan
politics. Rohrabacher's contention that an airport, with all the negatives it
would bring, actually would increase property values amply illustrates the
false logic being voiced by the large developers who stand to profit from
population growth and the infrastructure which such growth brings. Who
else in the county feels that rampant growth in both population and
construction projects benefits anyone but the few who stand to realize
financial gain? Talk about unholy! Look in the mirror, Mr. Rohrabacher.
Jerry Waller
Mission Viejo
 

* * *
Right on, Rohrabacher, on the El Toro Airport vs. the NIMBYs!
If we convert this perfectly good airport to any other use, 50 years from
now our grandchildren, while slogging their way through traffic to LAX, will
be wondering how we could have been so insane.
D.T. Parker
Cypress
 

* * *
There he goes again, to paraphrase his hero Ronald Reagan.
Rohrabacher, who never puts the welfare of the average citizen over that
of his giants of industry and business sponsors, has written an attack on
the idea of a Great Park in the center of Orange County from his lair in
Jurassic Park. His simplistic list of "can't do's, won't work," sounds like
child's play compared to the monumental folly of an airport at El Toro.
The good citizens of Orange County are too wise and too knowledgeable
about his associations to fall for his transparent charges. It must wound
his sense of adoration of the robber barons of a previous century to find
that the average citizen can believe in a vision that will improve the
quality of life for us all.
Leonard Doerfler
Huntington Beach
 

* * *
I think we all owe Rohrabacher a debt of gratitude for once again
clarifying the important issues of our times. Imagine my surprise at
finding out that a park at the closed El Toro military base would cause not
only the virtual financial destruction of Orange County, but would also
become a haven for "prostitutes, drug addicts and other criminals." Here
in southern Orange County, no less!
Imagine the chagrin of having spent half my life studying criminology and
never having known that parks are the major cause of crime. "Build it
and they will come," Rohrabacher so knowledgeably informs us. I hope
he will join me in following through on his remarkable insight to propose
the immediate elimination of all Orange County parks and grassy crime
breeding grounds--Mile Square Park, Fairview Park, Crystal Cove and the
like--before it's too late.
Steven A. Bloch
Laguna Niguel
 

* * *
After reading Rohrabacher's gut-busting, hilarious diatribe, I am reminded
why I love living in Orange County. While the rest of the species has
evolved into relatively intelligent homo sapiens, we here in progressive
O.C. can still observe firsthand the guttural rantings of Pithecanthropus,
as exemplified by our illustrious government representative. As for all
those hookers and pickpockets who will infest the park, we can hire them
as truck drivers to haul all that old runway concrete to LAX, where they
want to expand the airport to the moon. Thanks, Dana. You just added
50,000 more signatures to support the Great Park. We'll add a wave
pool just for you.
Mikel Harley
Laguna Niguel

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.178 - 4.48.136.178) on Sunday, June 10,
 2001 - 05:18 am:
 

From the Commentary page, OC Register, June 10, 2001….

"UNSPIN"

"South county foes of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Base argue
that a multi-billion dollar park is the most fair-minded reuse of the 4700
acre property. In fact, park supporters have changed the name of their
plans from Great Park to the Central Park, as a way to emphasize its
countywide benefits.

But an analysis by Supervisor Cynthia Coad reinforces what a
Commentary Column recently pointed out. The great Pork, as we called
it, would mainly benefit those south county residents who live near it.
Coad's analysis tracked Zip codes of residents who use the base regularly
for golfing, horseback riding and other county subsidized uses, and found
that most of the beneficiaries live nearby."

"No reason to expect that a costly mega-park will be any different. But
everyone—even less affluent residents who live far from it—will have to
pay the freight."

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.178 - 4.48.136.178) on Sunday, June 10,
 2001 - 05:51 am:
 

El Toro will fly as a park

http://www.ocregister.com/commentary/letters.shtml

In 1993, a joint power authority named ETPRA was formed in which the
county, all the cities in Orange County and several businesses and citizens
groups participated in an open and fair planning process to determine the
best use for El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The study was designed to
compare and select the best alternative between a non-airport project
and a large or small airport.

But, to the dismay of airport proponents, the facts presented did not
guarantee the selection of a large international airport. Hence, an
insidious conspiracy was concocted to sabotage a credible planning
process and replace it with one that is politically motivated and structured
to justify at all cost a flawed airport plan. In 1994, the entrenched political
establishment of wealthy special interests, mainly from Newport Beach,
committed the dastardly act of putting Measure A on the ballot to
mandate an airport at El Toro.

Consequently, for seven years, the county's planning process was
manipulated to suppress factual material unfavorable to the airport plan in
exchange for public support. Because of this, the process has lost its
credibility among airport opponents, as well as proponents.

However, the time for redemption has arrived. Finally we have the
opportunity to reject this misbegotten airport plan by supporting the
Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative. The passage of this ballot
measure in March of 2002 will allow the people of Orange County to pass
on a legacy to future generations in securing a superior quality of life.

Paul Willems
Laguna Niguel

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.124 - 4.48.136.124) on Tuesday, June
 12, 2001 - 04:13 am:
 

Congressmen Urge O.C. Supervisors to End Labor Pact

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010612/t000048862.html
 

By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer

Orange County's congressional leaders have sent the Board of
Supervisors a letter urging it to rescind a labor pact that makes it
mandatory for the county to use unions on big public projects.

The letter, dated June 8 and signed by the area's five congressmen,
asked that county supervisors drop the deal because it restricts bidders
on county projects and raises costs to taxpayers.

"We strongly urge you to revoke the project labor agreement . . . which
will allow more contractors to bid on projects and reduce unnecessary
costs for Orange County's taxpayers," the letter says.

It was signed by Republican Reps. Christopher Cox, Ed Royce, Darrell
Issa, Dana Rohrabacher and Gary Miller.

In addition, any union agreement could jeopardize federal funds for
construction projects, the congressmen said in the letter.

In February, President Bush signed an executive order revoking a
requirement that construction projects using federal funds be unionized.
It reversed a 1993 executive order signed by President Bill Clinton that
gave preference to union workers in jobs using federal funds.

The letter stated that the "Bush executive order is intended to send a
strong signal that government at all levels should be neutral toward both
union and nonunion contractors and should work steadfastly to prevent
discrimination against workers who choose not to belong to a union."

Known as a project labor agreement, the pact was adopted by the
board's three pro-El Toro airport project majority members about 16
months ago over protests by independent contractors, who contended
that the agreement would result in higher construction costs.

The board said the pact was needed to control project costs, guarantee a
supply of skilled local workers and impose hefty fines for work stoppages
or strikes. It requires 85% union workers on general contracts of
$225,000 or more and on specialty contracts worth $15,000 or more.

But critics accused supervisors who approved the pact--Chuck Smith, Jim
Silva and Cynthia P. Coad--of pandering to labor unions in exchange for
union support last year to fight an anti-airport ballot measure. Measure F
was passed by 67% of the vote but was overturned by a judge in
December.

Coad, who now heads the Board of Supervisors, said it may be
premature to revoke the pact in view of alternatives suggested by labor
groups, such as requesting a waiver of Bush's executive order.

The county's pact is unique because it applies to most projects through
2005. Other labor deals in California have been tailored to specific public
works projects.
But according to Richard Slawson, executive secretary of the Los Angeles
and Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council, the labor
pact is irrevocable because it is a contract.

"We're open to discussion to change the contract," Slawson said, adding
that he and other labor officials "did not appreciate" the congressional
delegation "interfering with local government."

Last week, Supervisor Tom Wilson requested a county review to pinpoint
any unnecessary costs that may have resulted from the pact.

"The county has 18 projects in the pipeline to be approved," Wilson said.
"I don't think we're saving the taxpayers any money."

Wilson cited a recent study by Associated Builders and Contractors, which
found that costs for pavement repairs and maintenance at John Wayne
Airport were $1.3 million in 1999, yet increased to $1.7 million the
following year with only one bidder. The work was for the same items
both years; Wilson blamed the higher cost on the pact.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.124 - 4.48.136.124) on Tuesday, June
 12, 2001 - 04:23 am:
 

Newport takes JWA campaign to Internet

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010612/tdp0020120.html
 

City is working to inform residents of plans to extend flight caps at the
airport.

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT BEACH -- To give residents a direct pipeline to City Hall, City
Manager Homer Bludau has sent out a letter to residents updating them
on the push to extend flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

Bludau sent out the two-page letter, dated May 25, to more than 35,000
households. It discusses the process leading to any extension deal, the
dangers of expansion of the airport and the environmental review
protocol involved.

The letter will be the first of several, Bludau said.

"The idea of the letter was to begin a communication with the
community," Bludau said. "We need to share the facts with them."

Bludau, in the letter, spells out the city's preferred plan for extending the
flight restrictions, which were put in place by the 1985 settlement
agreement. The dual cap of 8.4 million annual passengers and 73 daily
departures would be raised to 9.8 million and 85, respectively.

There are two other proposals being studied by the county that would lay
the groundwork for greater expansion. One would raise the cap to 10.8
million passengers and the other would remove the cap altogether.

Bludau's letter doesn't detail the other two plans, nor does it mention the
city's promise to cover any legal liability for whatever plan the county
chooses.

The letter does contain a reference to "other, more onerous alternatives"
than the city's preferred extension deal.

The letter failed to open all the lines of communication between City Hall
and residents, however.

Eastbluff resident Joan Ramstedt-Andersen said she was irritated by what
she said was the letter's condescending tone.

"What it does is downplays what's going on," Ramstedt-Andersen said.
"It's that paternalistic attitude . . . like just let Mom and Dad take care of
it."

Bludau, who signed the letter, said he had no intention of ruffling feathers
with the letter.

In addition to the promise to pay for the defense of any lawsuits, the city
also agreed to fund the environmental review. The preparation of those
documents will cost "well under $1 million," Bludau has said.

"There really isn't any desire to hide the fact that we are paying for the"
environmental review, Bludau said.

The city has also launched a Web site to post updates on the process.
The address is http:// www.jwalimits.org .

The site provides more in-depth information on the airport, as well as a
handful of relevant documents that can be viewed and downloaded.
Readers of the site can e-mail questions and comments.

The site ends with a perky message: "Thanks for looking!"

Bludau said he hoped both the site and letter would keep residents up to
date.

"We want to make sure there are plenty of mechanisms to reach
people," Bludau said.

QUESTION

Open lines

Is Newport Beach on the right track with its recent letter and new Web
site? Call our Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or send e-mail to
dailypilot@latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your
hometown and phone number, for verification purposes only.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.67 - 4.48.136.67) on Wednesday, June
 13, 2001 - 05:39 am:
 

Congressmen Aren't Looking for the Union Label in County

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010613/t000049279.html

By DANA PARSONS

We all know (gulp) of marriages that seem to defy logical explanation.
How did those two ever hook up? The parties didn't know each other
that long, shared no common historic interests and, if truth be told,
probably never really trusted each other's intentions.

But even those modest obstacles might be surmountable if it weren't for
the No. 1 impediment to long-running happy marriages: nosy relatives.

Oh, the mischief they can cause. Wouldn't you just love to tell these
busybodies to mind their own business?

That's why it's so irritating to me, a guy with a heart as big as all
outdoors and the gullibility to match, to see Orange County's five
Republican congressmen throw cold water on the 17-month-old marriage
between the Board of Supervisors and organized labor.

Hey, they're just getting to know each other!

The congressmen want the board (also made up of five Republicans) to
scrap its commitment to guarantee union work on all big county projects
through 2005.

Under normal circumstances, you'd think the family-values,
honor-your-commitments crowd would be the first to encourage people
to stay the course. They would never renege on a contract.

But this is a marriage between a politically conservative board and
organized labor--sort of like a Hatfield marrying a McCoy--and the
board's congressional relatives no doubt objected to it from the get-go.
With organized labor a perennial pillar of Democratic politics, you can
understand their antipathy.

Obviously, the congressmen haven't looked as deeply into labor's eyes
as have the supervisors.

So what is it the board saw when it cozied up to union leaders?

The cynical view, of course, was that it wasn't love at all.

Rather, in guaranteeing union work on big projects, the board was buying
union support for any and all votes on the El Toro airport project last
January, at a time when the anti-airport Measure F was heading to the
ballot.

A three-member board majority badly wanted the airport and, what a
surprise, the vote on the union-friendly agreement was 3-0, with airport
supporters casting the votes. Anti-airport supervisors Todd Spitzer and
Thomas Wilson abstained.

What the union wanted was even more obvious: lots of work in the
years ahead.

Both sides saw something they liked in the other. Isn't that how
marriages are made?

A quid pro quo?

Isn't that rather obvious, asks a union leader familiar with the
negotiations but who asked not to be identified. However, he's quick to
point out, politics demands such denials.

The first "date" the unions had with the county's leadership wasn't even
with government officials, the labor leader says. The overtures came in
the early 1990s from airport backers George Argyros and Bruce
Nestande, two pillars of Republican politics and the Orange County
business community.

They wanted union backing for the airport (possibly to impress the
Clinton administration) and asked Orange County labor leaders what it
would take to get it, the labor leader says.

That led to the courtship that culminated in the 2000 agreement with the
board, he says.

The nuptials announced 17 months ago shocked some in the
conservative family.

"If you've noticed, organized labor is constantly being derided in this
county," the labor man says. "This has got to be among the most
labor-unfriendly places in the nation. This [agreement with the county] is
just such a cherry on top. It's so cool."

So yeah, you can understand why many conservatives wanted to disown
a board that suddenly saw beauty in the labor movement.

But labor also tried harder to dress itself up, the union man says. It
argued that union work meant channeling money to working families in
Orange County. Subtly or not, labor leaders made the point that
nonunion labor might mean illegal residents--some or many of whom
might then get cheated by unscrupulous contractors.

This time, the magic worked.

Ain't love grand?

And, let me add this solemn note: "What politics hath joined, let no
congressman rent asunder."

 By GLADIATOR (12.31.44.5 - 12.31.44.5) on Wednesday, June 13,
 2001 - 08:28 am:
 

Congressmen Ask Mineta To Address Mayors El Toro Concerns
Airports Magazine, June 12, 2001

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote DOT
Secretary Norman Mineta June 6 asking that he insure an upcoming FAA
report on potential El Toro operations specifically answer questions raised
by nine local mayors about the airports safety. Foremost among the
concerns of these elected officials is the safety of the proposed runway
configuration at El Toro, with the vast majority of aircraft departing
toward the mountains," Cox and Issa wrote Mineta. Another concern is
the effect on flights in tight airspace in Southern California, particularly
nearby John Wayne Airport. “We expect the FAA’s report on El Toro to
candidly and forthrightly address these and other operational issues in
detail, and hope that the agency will be active in providing Orange County
Residents with honest and accurate information about the safety issues
involved" Opinions abound on the safety of these operations. Air Line
Pilots Association has said that it is possible to operate safely at El Toro,
depending on the configuration, but maintains passenger operations could
be dangerous if the expected runway configuration is not changed
(Airports, May15). The Orange County supervisors who are promoting
the airport are confident the airport can be operated safely.

COPYRIGHT@2001 THE McGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.137.104 - 4.48.137.104) on Thursday, June
 14, 2001 - 08:59 am:
 

Two supervisors call El Toro a 'money pit'

http://www.ocregister.com/local/budget00614cci8.shtml

County backs $27.2 million for base reuse, but the board is concerned
about general-fund subsidy.
June 14, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

The Board of Supervisors decided to spend $27.2 million on El Toro
during the fiscal year that starts July 1, despite a growing reliance on tax
dollars that prompted some supervisors to call the closed base "a money
pit."

During budget talks Wednesday, supervisors fretted over the increasing
cost to the county general fund - from $5 million annually in a five-year
strategic plan up to a requested $6.8 million for the new fiscal year.

"We can't afford to keep putting this kind of money into the base," said
Supervisor Charles V. Smith.

The problem, county staff said, is base revenue has been weaker than
forecast.

Blame was placed on the Navy, which leases the former Marine base to
the county and has moved slowly to let the county amend the lease to
try to make more money, officials said.

"They're not dragging their feet," Smith said. "Their feet are encased in
concrete.''

El Toro director Gary Simon said buildings at the base require enough
upgrades that the county may never make more than $1 million a year
from leasing them, far less than originally hoped for.

"Will we ever be at a true break-even point? No," Simon said. "Will we be
able to get it under $5 million (cost to the county)? I certainly hope so.''

Supervisors eventually agreed to unanimously support the part of the
budget - about $14.4 million - that funds public programs, such as golf,
stables and recreational-vehicle storage. The programs are expected to
bring in $6 million toward offsetting the costs.

The board split 3-2 along pro- and anti-El Toro airport lines over whether
to continue spending John Wayne Airport revenue - about $12.8 million -
to plan and promote the proposed airport.

Anti-airport Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson - who used the
term "money pit" - criticized the continued use of the John Wayne
money for El Toro.

John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy told them the effect would be
small, perhaps delaying up to a year the expected early payoff of $32
million in airport debt.

The El Toro budget of $27.2 million would be an increase from this year's
$16.3 million. It will be up for final approval with the county budget June
26.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.137.104 - 4.48.137.104) on Thursday, June
 14, 2001 - 10:00 am:
 

Another error stalls park petition drive

Double volunteers needed to get initiative signatures

By: Cheryl Walker, The Leisure World News, June 14, 2001

Corrections, corrections, corrections have stalled and stalled again the
progress of the new anti-airport petition signatures drive.

First it was a misplaced directions, second it was the lack of bold print,
the third time it was a misplaced map.

Will the third time be the charm? It better be, because proponents of a
new anti-airport petition will have lost six crucial weeks needed to gain
the 77,000 valid signatures of registered voters needed to qualify their
Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve petition for the 2002
ballot. The deadline for signatures is August 18, 2001.

Now, it looks like it could be another 10 days to two weeks before the
revised petition will be ready to circulate and---since thousands of
signatures gathered are void---anti-airport forces will need all the
volunteers they can get to amass the signatures needed.

John Phelan, chairman of the petition drive in Leisure World, encourages
all interested persons to line up to volunteer. "Don't lie down and die, get
your dander up and try even harder."

Len Kranser of the El Toro coalition added, "Remember what the
alternative could be!"

If the required signatures are not amassed by the August 18, 2001
deadline, proponents say that's not going to stop them.

Laguna Woods City Councilman Bert Hack, a veteran opponent of the
plan to turn the former Marine Base at El Toro into a commercial airport,
said the alternative plan is to gather 144,000 signatures and go for a
special election in June, 2002. "That initiative will be on a ballot sometime
in the spring," Hack emphasized.

If it passes, the initiative will replace language in the county's general plan,
which mandates that the former Marine air base at El Toro becomes a
commercial airport with new language that will earmark the land for
non-aviation uses.

To volunteer, contact Phelan, 859-0259 or Virginia Kincaid, 581-6694

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.166 - 4.48.136.166) on Friday, June 15,
 2001 - 05:21 am:
 

Airport opponents file initiative petition – again

http://www.ocregister.com/local/toro00615cci.shtml
 

Backers of a park at El Toro had not included a map of their plan in earlier
submission.

June 15, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

El Toro airport foes on Thursday filed - for the third time - their initiative
for a park at the former Marine base, this time to make sure a map of
their plans is included with documents on file with the county.

The latest setback for airport opponents will cost them thousands of
signatures already gathered on petitions - and valuable time - as they
seek to qualify the Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative for the
March 2002 ballot.

The campaign needs 70,000 valid signatures by mid-September.

Initiative leaders say they chose to refile with the county Registrar of
Voters again even though they believe their last filing was complete and
correct. To fight that point, they said, could have cost them more time
and more delays in their petition-gathering efforts.

In addition, they added some other maps - like previous county zoning
for the base - as a precaution.

"It was a tough choice," said Len Kranser, a spokesman for the
campaign. "Either start over again, or spend an unknown amount of time
arguing the issue.

"We anticipate that we'll be back collecting signatures by the end of the
month," he said.

Airport backers wrote county Registrar Rosalyn Lever last week, pointing
out the missing map and asking her to rule the initiative invalid.

"We'll get a copy and take a look, and hopefully they've corrected their
errors this time," pro-airport attorney Fredric Woocher said.

Previously, the initiative campaign had refiled the document to correct
minor technical problems members had discovered during their own
review of the paperwork.

Kranser said that this time, the campaign believes the documents are
bulletproof.

"We see this as a frustration, but not nearly as serious as living with an
airport," he said.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.166 - 4.48.136.166) on Friday, June 15,
 2001 - 06:47 am:
 

Airport Foes Take 3rd Run at Petitions

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010615/t000049790.html

By JEAN O. PASCO, Times Staff Writer

For the third time, supporters of a plan for a large urban park at the
closed El Toro Marine base will start from scratch collecting voter
signatures to put an initiative on the March ballot.

As many as 30,000 signatures collected on petitions at shopping centers
and public events in the last three weeks will be scrapped because a
crucial map was missing from documents sent to county officials, park
proponents said Thursday.

"Basically, the choice was either spend the time fighting the thing with an
indeterminate amount of time involved and an uncertain outcome, or just
do it again," anti-airport group spokesman Len Kranser said. "It's not
fun."

The petitions were challenged last week by airport supporters for failing
to include a map of the zoning proposed for the 4,700-acre base. State
law requires all relevant documents to be included when initiatives are
submitted to county officials, said Frederick C. Woocher, an attorney for
the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

Volunteers with Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities already had
to regroup earlier because of paperwork problems.

The first set of documents, submitted to Orange County registrar's
officials in May, contained typographical and other errors. For example,
titles were not in bold type, as required, and dots designating new
paragraphs were printed as Japanese yen symbols.

When a second set of paperwork was submitted, the map was not
included, registrar's officials said.

Kranser and anti-airport activist Bill Kogerman insisted that the map was
sent but was misplaced when registrar's officials forwarded the
paperwork to county attorneys for review.

County attorneys have 15 days to review the third set of documents and
draft a new title and summary, Registrar Rosalyn Lever said. The initiative
also must be published again before signatures can be collected.

"We're starting the whole process over," Lever said.

Organizers must collect 71,206 valid signatures. The initiative would
replace airport zoning, approved by voters in 1994, with a designation for
parkland and a nature preserve. A specific plan for the base, called the
Great Park, was developed by Irvine and is supported by a coalition of
South County cities.

Airport backer Bruce Nestande, who filed the complaint against the
initiative last week, said airport foes must be held accountable for
following the law.

Kranser said the group decided to start over so the final submission
cannot be challenged later.

"As somebody said, it's not as bad as living next to an airport," he said.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.166 - 4.48.136.166) on Friday, June 15,
 2001 - 06:58 am:
 

Pilots back another El Toro option

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010615/tdp0020214.html
 

Newport Beach resident's plan calls for realignment of one of two
runways.

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT BEACH -- A pilots group that once criticized an alternative
runway plan for the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has shifted its
stance.

The Air Line Pilots Assn. announced the change in an e-mail letter to
Charles Griffin, the Newport Beach resident and author of the alternative
plan, which would realign the east-west runway so it would form an
inverted V pattern with the north-south runway.

Griffin and other members of The New Millennium Group, a political action
committee, have said they will begin circulating a petition in the next few
weeks that, if it qualifies, would put the plan, known as the Wildlands
Ranch Alternative, to a public vote in March.

That would coincide with the South County measure that, if approved,
would change zoning at the base to pave the way for a central park.

In the e-mail Wednesday, Capt. Jon Russell, the western regional safety
chairman of the association, said his group "urges the FAA to review the
proposal set forth in The New Millennium Group proposal . . . for
operations on Runway 16."

The comment reversed the group's earlier contention that the V-plan has
"serious and specific limitations," a comment in Russell's July 25 letter to
Orange County.

The county analyzed the V-plan in its environmental review of the airport
system master plan, which contemplates a 28.8-million annual passenger
airport at the base.

The Federal Aviation Administration has refused to review the V-plan
because it has not been endorsed by county airport planners.

The runways at the air base are now aligned in a crossed-bar pattern.
Critics have picked out safety concerns of the county's airport plan, which
would leave the runways in their present layout. Griffin said he introduced
the plan so a safer airport could be built.

New Millennium members giddily embraced Russell's letter. Russell
Niewiarowski has worked with Griffin to refine the plan since it was first
included in the county's December 1999 environmental report.

"This is the first time that they have ever endorsed looking at something
else other than their own plan," said Niewiarowski, a Santa Ana Heights
resident. "It's the beginning of a new direction."

To secure Niewiarowski's support, Griffin modified several aspects of the
V-shaped runway alignment.

Griffin lowered the slope of the north-south runway, which arriving planes
would theoretically use in a southerly descent. Griffin also proposed
extending the runway.

Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the South County cities fighting an
airport at El Toro, said she supported consideration of Griffin's plan.

"I think they should look at it," Waters said. "I don't have any problem."

City officials pushing for an El Toro airport have said the county should
continue ignoring Griffin's plan because it would delay the airport plan long
enough to rot on the vine.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Friday, June 15,
 2001 - 11:00 am:
 

OC Register editorial
June 15, 2001

County PLA under fire

To understand the degree to which the pro-airport Board of Supervisors
majority has alienated itself from other local GOP leaders, glance at the
letter sent Friday by five Orange County Republican congressmen to the
board.

Reps. Christopher Cox, Ed Royce, Dana Rohrabacher, Gary Miller and
Darrell Issa call on the board to revoke the project labor agreement that
is harming local taxpayers and construction workers.

The agreement, known as a PLA, was signed by the board in January
2000 as a way to gin up support among organized labor for the
international airport plan pushed forward by Supervisors Charles Smith,
Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad.

PLAs give unions monopoly control over public works projects. Much
evidence - including a recent report regarding John Wayne Airport
pavement contracting - shows that PLAs drive up costs by reducing
competition. Furthermore, they discriminate against non-union workers
and companies.

"As you know, on Feb. 17, 2001, President George W. Bush issued
Executive Order No. 13202 to prohibit the use of federal funds on
projects governed by a project labor agreement," the congressmen
wrote. "We strongly support President Bush's policy of promoting open
competition on construction projects in order to reduce costs to the
federal government and taxpayers." The representatives argue against
exempting only federal projects from the county PLA, which has been
proposed in the wake of the Bush order. The board also has discussed
asking for a waiver rather than dumping this misguided PLA.

"The Bush executive order is intended to send a strong signal that
government at all levels should be neutral toward both union and
non-union contractors and should work steadfastly to prevent
discrimination against workers who choose not to belong to the union,"
the letter explained.

That's a good and fair principle. Unfortunately, Supervisors Coad, Smith
and Silva remain willing to sacrifice efficient government services and the
rights of companies and workers to their airport proposal.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.73 - 4.48.136.73) on Saturday, June 16,
 2001 - 07:21 am:
 

Briefly in the news

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010616/tdp0020241.html
 

Pro-El Toro group elects new leaders
 

Members of a North County pro-El Toro airport group have elected a new
cadre of leaders.

The Orange County Regional Airport Authority ushered in the new crew at
a Wednesday meeting.

Cypress Mayor Pro Tem Lydia Sondhi was voted in as the new
chairwoman, replacing Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly.

Garden Grove Mayor Pro Tem Mark Rosen replaced Orange Councilman
Dan Slater as vice chairman of the 14-city group.

The authority has seen some changes in membership in the past several
months. On April 18, Westminster joined the group. But Villa Park pulled
out at around the same time. Fullerton came within a hairsbreadth of
pulling out when the City Council in that city split 2-2 on the issue in May.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:01 am:
 

Best Solution for El Toro: Auction the land

OC Register…Op Ed…June 17, 2001

By: Kevin M. Keyes. Mr. Keyes lives in Irvine, is director of international
operations for a software company in Los Angeles.

The "El Toro Airport" and the "Great Park" are equally stupid options.

To listen to the pundits debating the issue, they have developed such a
lack of perspective as to believe we have only two options. The debating
armies on each side have already lost the war with reasonable people
knowing full well we continue to have a full array of options.

One of the few constitutional options of the federal government is to
provide for the common defense of our nation. Under that responsibility,
the government used generations of tax dollars to construct and
maintain a military facility defending our nation's shores.

Now the feds say they can meet their constitutional obligations without
this base. The simple answer is to turn it back to the private sector and
remove the burden from the taxpayers.

Simply put, get it out of government hands.

The airport option on its face seems ridiculous—buying some of the most
expensive land in the history of the world only to pave it over as an
airplane driveway cannot even begin to make fiscal sense to any
company unless—the plans call on the taxpayers to again fund for what
they have already paid for.

I would suggest any "investor" look east to the inexpensive California
desert where vast amounts of land and opportunity exist to develop a
21st century transportation hub at a reasonable cost and return on
investment.

By the same token, the "foundation of annexation" by any city must be
to enhance revenues, not acquire debt or liability to the citizens it
represents.

The City of Irvine's attempt to annex the property is sheer
capriciousness.

No city can say it has performed the responsible task of management by
acquiring such debt. Let alone the millions of additional dollars that must
be used to "do something" with it. It is simply not the taxpayers' role to
"do something."

The obvious answer, and the one "most seldom not heard," is to auction
the property to private developers, pay back the taxpayers and let
private industry move forward with the property's development.

Private industry has always had a better track record on successful
implementations of ideas than taxpayer-subsidized monoliths.

Government's function should be limited to that of simply a support role,
not a decision role. Shifting the property to the private sector will remove
the politics that currently saturate the issue and remove liability from the
taxpayers.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:08 am:
 

Irvine Planning Homes for a No-Fly Zone

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050445.html

Land use: Foreseeing no airport, city wants 2,500 units near El Toro.
Tactic is worthy of Saddam Hussein, one backer says.

By JEAN O. PASCO, Times Staff Writer

The city of Irvine is poised to approve more than 2,500 homes near a
flight path for the proposed El Toro airport, part of a strategy many say is
intended to block any airfield at the former Marine base.

The housing project--on land visible to thousands of motorists passing
daily on the San Diego Freeway between Sand Canyon and Laguna
Canyon roads--is incompatible with an airport, a state commission has
told the city. But the City Council is expected to allow the large-scale
development of the Irvine Co. parcel anyway. It would be the first
neighborhood built near the former Marine base since it was
decommissioned in July 1999.

City officials contend that a commercial airport will never open at the
base, so the construction of homes, schools and child-care centers
should be allowed beneath or near such possible flight paths. Irvine and
other south Orange County cities want El Toro transformed into a large
urban park and have drafted an ordinance that airport foes hope to place
on the March ballot.

Meanwhile, commercial development closer to the base has been
proceeding with Irvine's blessing, including rezoning portions of the Irvine
Co.'s Spectrum business and technology park adjacent to the base to
allow homes and child-care centers. The city also wants to annex land
north of the base for homes.

"This is putting a development where an airport is not going to be,"
Councilman Chris Mears said of the Irvine Co.'s project known as
Planning Area 17, which will go to the city's Planning Commission on
Thursday.

"If we felt there was going to be an airport ever built at El Toro, we of
course might have a different view," he said. "We're not putting anyone
at risk because there will not be an airport there."

Councilman Mike Ward said the plan provides much needed housing in his
city. "We have a lot of businesses in Irvine, and if we don't build homes,
the problem is going to get worse."

The development would include homes, 1.1 million square feet of office
and retail space, a 17-acre community park, a fire station and a school
on 746 acres of rolling hills and grasslands.
Tract maps for the new neighborhood will be considered Thursday, but a
final vote won't be taken until next month. Grading can begin once the
Planning Commission approves the maps.

Irvine began to encourage development around the base near the Santa
Ana and San Diego freeways two years ago, spurred by incoming
Councilman and now Mayor Larry Agran. The concept: Allow homes and
schools in areas where building had been restricted for 56 years because
of noise from military jets.

Any development, in turn, would produce more allies in the city's battle
against converting El Toro's airfield into the second-largest commercial
airport in Southern California.

UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca, an airport foe,
compared the strategy to "Saddam Hussein ringing little children around
military installations in the Gulf War as a disincentive to bomb."

Lake Forest, which also has control over areas near the base, has opted
against approving new homes and schools there.

"We don't feel that that's wise, but that's what Irvine wants to do, so I
can't criticize them," Lake Forest Mayor Kathryn McCullough said. "Every
city has their own commitment to their citizens."

The Airport Land Use Commission, a state-created panel that oversees
airport-area development, has continued to restrict construction on
14,000 acres around the base, citing the possible future airport. The
limits have remained in place in areas once affected by noise from military
jets and in potential crash zones.

Irvine and Lake Forest sued the state commission last year, but lost.
Irvine has twice overridden the panel's warnings against building in the
buffer zone. Doing so means the city accepts responsibility for paying any
damages for excessive noise or plane crashes in the area should an
airport be built.

Pro-airport spokesman Bruce Nestande said Irvine's actions show that
city officials are more interested in rushing development around the base
than in protecting future residents from noise from an airport that the
county still plans to build. "It shows their true colors," he said.

In fact, designers of the new community did consider the presence of a
future airport--just in case.

A portion of the planning area would fall within a "high noise" zone left
over from El Toro military days. Planners have placed houses outside that
zone, but did leave within it the option of building child-care centers,
convalescent homes and hospitals by special permit.

County officials say the area subject to greatest aircraft noise will shrink
after the airport is built. One reason is that commercial planes are much
quieter than military jets. The county also wants planes to depart El Toro
to the north and east. Planes would arrive from the south, and aircraft
engines generally are quieter during descent.

However, a coalition of pilots and North County officials isn't sold on the
county's flight-path plan. It wants to qualify a measure for the March
ballot that would force the county to have planes depart to the south.
That would be safer and more efficient and would affect fewer residents
because planes would fly over mostly open space just south of the
proposed development, supporters have said.

This past week, the Air Line Pilots Assn., the nation's largest pilots union,
called for the county to officially study such southern departures. The
union has argued for six years that having planes leave to the north and
east would be too dangerous because of hills and conflicting flight paths
for Los Angeles International and other airports.

However, county airport planners and the Irvine Co. have rejected
takeoffs to the south. Doing so would create too much noise for 4,000
future homes in Irvine, including these latest ones, county planners said
last year.

Aeronautical engineer Charles Griffin, who helped design the
southern-takeoff plan, said its creators met recently with the Irvine Co.
to discuss the new initiative. While they didn't expect to change the
company's opposition, he said, organizers wanted to explain why they
believe their airport plan would have the least effect on residents.

The company wants to build 2,553 homes. Of that amount, 2,030 would
be in a high-noise zone with southern departures, according to the
county. But the designers of the alternative plan reconfigured the flight
path to keep those homes outside the zone, Griffin said.

"We're looking at [planes flying over] areas that now are undeveloped,"
said Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, a former airline pilot and
air traffic controller who helped design the ballot measure. "Why should
the county care more about people who'll be living in homes that aren't
even built yet?"
* * *
Times staff writer Janet Wilson contributed to this report.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:21 am:
 

Mittermeier's Supporting Role

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050446.html

By JERRY HICKS, Times Staff Writer

The cover of her new business brochure is dominated by the king on a
chessboard, lording over the pawns, knights and bishops. Jan
Mittermeier, Orange County's former executive officer, says the king
represents a winning strategy.

That's how she's selling herself these days: the strategic planner who can
deliver a checkmate.
When Mittermeier was forced out by the county Board of Supervisors last
June, her supporters predicted she'd take a year off, then bounce back
with a vengeance, taking the helm of a high-profile public agency or a
private company.

Instead, Mittermeier, 61, of Huntington Beach, has taken a more subtle
route, opening her own one-woman consulting firm. She says it's a
delight to be on her own and working with people who look up to
her--free from the tension and politics that clouded her final year with the
county.

"I tell a company's leaders a direction they ought to go, and their
response is 'Of course. Let's do it,' " Mittermeier said. "It's the same
advice I was giving the Board of Supervisors, only these people are more
receptive."

Not that she's put the past behind her. She keeps a sharp eye on county
government and the proposed El Toro airport, the controversial plan that
she championed and that eventually led to her ouster.

Backed by a majority of supervisors, Mittermeier for years wielded power
with confidence and uncompromising authority as she extracted the
county from its embarrassing 1994
bankruptcy. Wall Street praised her. Political pundits loved her. Even
critics of her brusque style, including Supervisor Todd Spitzer,
acknowledged she was needed.

That changed, however, as the county's financial health recovered. Her
frank talk, once deemed tough leadership, became overbearing to some.
Mittermeier found herself at constant odds with supervisors who wanted
to reduce her authority.

Spitzer, one of Mittermeier's chief critics, said her greatest strength
eventually became her greatest weakness.

"When the county was in a financial crisis, Jan's strength was taking
charge. She'd say, 'Here's what I want done, go do it,' " Spitzer said. "I
give her tremendous credit. But she is not a consensus builder. After the
bankruptcy, her style was such that the walls had to come tumbling
down. The pendulum had swung too far and the board needed to cut
back her authority."

The final blow came when the supervisors voted to remove oversight of
the El Toro airport from Mittermeier's control--a move she declared
unacceptable.

The supervisors wanted an airport manager who would answer only to
them. Mittermeier argued it would make them in effect the county's
CEOs, because the airport is the county's most important, and biggest,
project.

Mittermeier also argued that it would violate her contract, which gave her
authority over all county matters. The board disagreed and voted to
accept her resignation--and give her a severance package worth close to
$200,000.

With a year to think about it, Mittermeier says she has no regrets.

"I feel good about the way I left," she said. "Maybe I could have been
more diplomatic. But I'm proud of the system we put in place."

Would she love to do it all over again, with another agency? Maybe run a
big company? Yes, she said, but not right now.

After being ushered out, Mittermeier decided to take a one-year
sabbatical from the world of high-pressure management. Personal
matters consumed most of her respite. Mittermeier became full-time
caretaker for her mother, who died in February after a lengthy illness.
She also has been executor for the estate of another relative who died in
January.

Her comeback has been gradual.

Mittermeier is teaching a course in business management at Cal State
Long Beach, working for an old ally, former supervisor Roger Stanton, in
the College of Business Administration.

Two companies also have hired her as a management consultant. She
declined to identify the clients, however, saying it wouldn't be fair to
them. She doesn't want them to become the focus of any negative
attention from her political enemies.

Great Park Option Not Realistic, She Says
Mittermeier says she knows what it takes to save money, and that's
advice that companies crave. And she doesn't hesitate to use her past to
promote herself in her new business. Her brochure points out:

"In less than three years, Mittermeier increased the county's investment
grade rating from D to AA. . . . Under Mittermeier's restructuring plan,
more than 220 redundant executive and administrative management
positions were eliminated, resulting in annual savings of more than $10.4
million."

Along with business advice, Mittermeier also gives unofficial political
advice to Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad. Though they had differed over
Mittermeier's oversight of the proposed El Toro airport, the two have
become good friends.

"Before Jan, there was no strategic planning in this county," Coad said. "I
seek her advice on occasion because her knowledge is tremendous."

Mittermeier remains a steadfast supporter of the proposed airport at the
closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and isn't happy with how the
pro-airport forces have handled themselves since she left her county
post.

Although she's careful not to criticize her successor, longtime county
employee Michael Schumacher, Mittermeier's displeasure over the
planning process is obvious.

"We cannot compete globally without a new airport," Mittermeier said.
"But we're not convincing the public that it's their fight, that they've got
to get behind it. That story's not being told very well."

Mittermeier said the public also needs to be told that the alternative being
offered by anti-airport forces--turning the closed base into a mammoth
park--isn't realistic. The U.S. Navy, she argues, will never approve a park
for that land because the upgrades would be too costly.

In other words, she says, those promoting the airport are missing a key
ingredient: a winning strategy.

That's the part she misses about working for the county: strategic
planning. "It's getting things done; that's what I miss," she said.

Mittermeier shared her thoughts during an interview at a restaurant
overlooking John Wayne Airport, a place she unabashedly loves.

A county auditor, she was sent to the airport in 1987 as assistant
director, and eventually became the airport's director. She oversaw a
$320-million expansion and stayed until 1995, when she was named top
county administrator after the county went bankrupt.

Gazing at the Thomas F. Riley Terminal, Mittermeier fondly recalled
working with the late supervisor it was named for.

"Supervisor Riley was against the new airport. But once he saw that the
board was going to do it, then he led the way to making it work. He
really deserves the credit for being flexible."

Her message isn't subtle: She doesn't see enough flexibility among
today's county supervisors.

Spitzer, a fierce opponent of an El Toro airport and outspoken critic of
Mittermeier, still believes a private company would be lucky to get her.

"Where she'd do well is taking some company that's in trouble," Spitzer
said. "That's her strength, a crisis mode."

Mittermeier doesn't see her reputation tainted by the political war last
June.

In her view, she wasn't fired, though clearly the board got its wish with
her departure. New opportunities will come, she said. For now, she's
happy with what she's doing.

"My husband would love to have me home, but I have too much
energy," she said. "I've worked too hard to develop my skills just to
leave them on the shelf."

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:26 am:
 

Debate Heats Up While Spitzer Pushes Charter

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050449.html

Politics: The supervisor's effort to alter county status is on Tuesday's
agenda. Critics say his proposal is a 'self-serving whim.'

By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer appears to be facing a tough
sales job in his push for a county charter that would, in part, prevent
Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from naming a successor should Spitzer win
an Assembly seat.

The job of supervisor is nonpartisan, but it's no secret that all five board
members are Republican. Spitzer insists that getting the charter measure
on the March 5 ballot is not a "Democratic-Republican thing."

"It's inappropriate to have a vacancy filled by a distant politician in
Sacramento," Spitzer said. "The people have an absolute right to vote for
someone to represent them."

But the proposal, on Tuesday's Board of Supervisors agenda, could have
trouble attracting the support of at least two other board members, let
alone the county's Democrats come election time. It would create a
county charter that incorporates existing state laws for counties, but with
a requirement for an election to fill supervisorial vacancies.

Spitzer has been raising money since December in an effort to replace
outgoing Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park). A Spitzer win would
mean that Davis would probably choose a Democrat to serve the
remaining two years of Spitzer's term, not a welcome prospect for the
county's dominant political party. The Board of Supervisors hasn't had a
Democratic member in 15 years.

But Democrats say they see through Spitzer's ploy as nothing more than
a "self-serving whim," said Frank Barbaro, the county's new Democratic
Party chairman.

"How many years have we been a non-charter county? Seventy? One
hundred?" Barbaro said.
"Suddenly, to suit the whims of one politician who has upward political
mobility in mind, we have to spend a ton of money on an election just to
satisfy his whim of fantasy. It just isn't going to work."

Davis has made bipartisan appointments in the past, Barbaro said, at
least for the judicial bench.

An informal poll of county supervisors showed that Spitzer's proposal
could eventually be approved, but that is unlikely to happen Tuesday.

Supervisor Chuck Smith and board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad said
they believe not enough is known about the proposal's impact on the
county. They said the proposal needs to be studied.

"The reasons for doing this are all wrong," Smith said. "What I would
want to do is to set up a charter committee to take a look at this,
because this is obviously a political attempt to pick his successor, and to
do this for a specific supposed problem without some in-depth study is
not the thing to do."

Coad and Smith said they might consider enlarging Spitzer's plan to
include the way board members are selected for two local agencies: the
Orange County Transportation Agency and the Local Agency Formation
Commission. Those board members are not elected by voters but
appointed, and making them elected boards could be considered by a
charter committee, the supervisors said.

Supervisors Jim Silva and Tom Wilson could not be reached for comment
but are said to be leaning toward a charter system.

Spitzer has won endorsements for the charter plan from most of the
county's Republican state legislators: Sens. Richard Ackerman and Bill
Morrow and Assembly members Bill Campbell, Tom Harman, Ken
Maddox, John Campbell, Lynn Daucher and Patricia Bates.

Only 13 of California's 58 counties have charters, which are individually
crafted sets of laws. The remainder, including Orange County, are
governed by general laws set down by the state.

Charters create more local autonomy. But once a charter system is
created, it allows for a greater number of governmental changes, said
Mark Petracca, head of the political science department at UC Irvine.

"In principle, more local autonomy is better than less local autonomy. But
it depends on what's in the charter," Petracca said. "Once you're a
charter entity, you do have subsequent autonomy to tinker with all kinds
of things, and that part can be dangerous."

But with the board's endorsement record on recent ballot
measures--Measure H on tobacco settlement spending and Measure F
against an El Toro airport both passed despite board opposition--Petracca
said board support could kill the charter idea among voters.

"In this county, the best voting cue is to vote in the opposite direction of
the board. If you put something on the ballot and have the board say
'Vote for it,' it gets voted down," he said. "Just by putting the proposal
on the ballot and having the board approve it is a risk in itself."

The charter plan, Spitzer said, would retain the county's general law
system as set by the state Constitution and its term limits statute for
board members, which calls for an election to choose a supervisor when
a vacancy occurs.

In a letter to board colleagues, Spitzer urged that they take "the path to
self-determination" and join other counties and cities that "are now in
control of their futures."

Spitzer said his plan is all the more necessary with term limits bringing a
turnover of current board members in the next six years. "The board
used to be a place where people stayed forever. But vacancies will
become the rule, not the exception," he said.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:34 am:
 

Rohrabacher's El Toro Stance Touches a Nerve

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050390.html
 

Re "Foes of an Airport at El Toro Have Their NIMBY Blinders On,"
Commentary, June 4:
As a military pilot and an airline captain with over 30 years' experience, I
am quite offended with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher alluding to airline pilots as
a bunch of complainers with unwarranted arguments concerning the
unsafe conditions at the El Toro airport. His comments go beyond
misrepresentations and half-truths. They are outright lies.

Rohrabacher comments that the military safely used El Toro for 40 years.
It is ludicrous to compare the performance of a military fighter jet with an
afterburner to that of a commercial airliner. It is laughable that this man
would try to deceive the public by saying that the proposed flight patterns
at El Toro would be safe based on a comparison with the former military
operations.

Rohrabacher tells only half of the story concerning President Nixon's use
of El Toro. What he cleverly omits is that the records show that Air Force
One refused to take off in an unsafe departure toward the mountains.

Air Force One was granted the special privilege of departing in a safe
direction away from the mountains and into the wind. The current plan
for El Toro will not afford us this privilege. The comment Rohrabacher
makes about the crash of the military version of a Boeing 707 in 1965
being pilot error may be true; however, if this pilot had departed in a
"safe" direction, away from the mountains, this accident would not have
occurred.

While airline pilots are a highly trained and skilled professional group, they
are susceptible to human error like everyone else. The enviable safety
record of the airline industry in this country results from this pilot force
working in concert with a remarkable group of engineers, planners and
builders of aircraft; the air traffic control system; and airports. Safety
should be paramount in the planning process and not an afterthought. A
properly planned airport builds in a margin of safety to allow for pilot
error. The primary error this pilot made was accepting a takeoff on a
marginally safe runway.

This is where Rohrabacher and the Board of Supervisors are failing the
public. El Toro could be planned and runways constructed to avoid
downwind takeoffs toward the mountains. They refuse to take the
approach where safety is the primary consideration because it would
redirect airport traffic over North County and erode their support for the
project.

When it comes to El Toro, politics is the primary concern, not safety.
George Serniak
Dana Point
* * *
Dana Rohrabacher falls prey to the temptation to put political platitudes
before logic.

He suggests that a new airport will create jobs, increase property values
and reduce pollution from cars driving from Orange County to Los
Angeles International Airport. However, because Orange County has very
low unemployment, the people working the new minimum-wage jobs at
the new airport would not be from Orange County, would be unable to
afford to move into the more expensive properties, and would have to
drive from surrounding counties to their new job in the heart of Orange
County, completely evaporating the supposed benefits envisioned by
Rohrabacher.
John B. Taylor
Irvine
* * *
Leave it to Rohrabacher, with a League of Conservation Voters'
environmental score of 10%, to preach for more cement, asphalt and
noise in Orange County.

Unfortunately, Rohrabacher and the Republican Party always equate any
human progress as a dollar sign for the few: their deep-pocket developer
buddies.

This El Toro land belongs to the citizens, and the citizens have said over
and over that open space, parks and recreation can be an important part
of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

In 1999, the California Department of Boating and Waterways
commissioned the "Fiscal Impact of Beaches" report, prepared by Philip
King of San Francisco State University. Some of the highlights are
mind-boggling:

In 1998 California beaches generated $10 billion in direct revenue and
$73 billion of indirect revenue to the national economy. California
beaches generated 883,000 jobs nationwide.

Unfortunately, California ranked eighth in terms of federal appropriations
for shore protection on its 1,100-mile coastline--just ahead of Delaware.
That works out to only $12,000 per mile, compared with $800,000 for
the New York and New Jersey coastlines.

California is a destination resort! We have 28 national parks, monuments
and recreational areas in our state. What's wrong with keeping federal
land as open space and recreation areas to be used for generations?

Instead of worrying about cliche NIMBYs, Rohrabacher and the rest of the
California congressional delegation should be working harder to bring
more of those tax dollars back to California.

Keep El Toro open space, stop the toll roads through our parks, and
invest in our beaches and coastline.
Donald Slaven
Huntington Beach
* * *
Unfortunately, Rohrabacher either forgot to send this message five years
ago and just now got around to it or he had it ghost-written by the
factually challenged Supervisor Chuck Smith.

Rohrabacher's pro-airport arguments have long ago been waylaid by the
facts. Especially untrue are the statements that "the airport will produce
less exhaust than the amount now spewing from the millions of cars
driven between Orange County and LAX each year," "property values will
rise," the airport will create "good jobs," and "then as now, safety wasn't
an issue."
The laughable examples of President Nixon flying safely in and out of El
Toro is important only if we know the takeoff routes of this aircraft. Want
to bet that the pilot always flew west over Newport Beach and not over
Loma Ridge or the Santa Ana Mountains?

Finally, one wonders if the good representative is committing political
suicide. When 67% of voters voted against the airport in support of
Measure F, it isn't too bright to then label them as "environmental
extremists," "insidious" and "irrational," especially when you're an elected
official.

His meritless message only helps to highlight that two-thirds of voters
believe the airport to be unnecessary, unworkable and a lousy idea.
Bob Rennie
Mission Viejo
* * *
Rohrabacher's piece regarding the "Great Park" at El Toro touches on all
the reasons it is a bad idea. However, as he says himself, "the public is
buying that insidious propaganda" regarding the park, and his hard-hitting
column is not likely to change anyone's mind.

He and the other airport supporters would be better served to fight fire
with fire, or they might as well roll over as they did in the last election
that included dumps and jails.

They should put a competing park initiative on the ballot. It should
propose to build the Great Park only if it is feasible and doesn't cost a
fortune in tax dollars. And if an airport is needed in the future, a portion of
the park could be used. That should blunt the "insidious propaganda"
from South County and might win in a landslide.
Michael Steiner
Costa Mesa
* * *
The coalition of Republicans and "environmental extremist Democrats"
that have joined forces is not trying to persuade the people of Orange
County that El Toro would be unsafe as a civilian airport.

Those facts have been presented, not by "some airline pilots" as
Rohrabacher states, but by both airline pilot associations. Rohrabacher,
like three of our county supervisors, chooses to ignore actual aviation
experts. I guess if they don't tell you what you want to hear, don't listen
to them.

The one thing I appreciated his pointing out is that the former Marine
base is in "the heart of our county." It is not in south Orange County, as
airport proponents would like you to believe. Therefore, the detrimental
effects of an airport will be felt well beyond south Orange County.

It is, however, wonderful to realize that a Great Park would benefit the
entire population of Orange County, as the park would be in "the heart of
the county."
Gail Brunell
Laguna Niguel
* * *
Thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher! Finally someone has addressed the folly of
the "Great Park."

Rohrabacher mentioned several sound reasons for an airport as well as
the tax drain a Great Park would place on the overburdened taxpayers.

The bonds the NIMBYs allude to for building the park are not free. Also,
the NIMBYs have not mentioned how the Great Park will pay for itself, or
even return a dime to the local coffers. It really doesn't take an economic
genius to know that such a park will cost taxpayers millions to build and
even more to maintain.

Another misleading statement is the NIMBYs' claim that a majority of the
people voted against the airport. The truth is the voters passed
Proposition A for the airport. They voted for Proposition F because of all
the "hot button" items that were attached, and the NIMBYs know that.

I moved to Orange County in 1958 to try to sell "dream homes" at what
is now the intersection of the 22 and 55 freeways. All too often I was
told, "This was a nice place, but who wants to live clear out here."

Hopefully, with an airport at El Toro we won't return to the days of this
cliche, but replace it with "Wow, Orange County is really a great place to
live!"
Richard O. Bame
Anaheim Hills
* * *
I was appalled to read U.S. Rep. Rohrabacher's condemnation of New
York's beloved Central Park. It was there my husband courted me as we
spent our Sunday afternoons strolling through its lovely vistas.

After our marriage we stood in line for tickets to Shakespeare in the Park
and enjoyed picnic suppers on the lawn of the Sheep Meadow before
concerts of stars of the Metropolitan Opera, all free to the general public.

In the next generation, our niece joined kids from all boroughs of the city
in competitive sporting events.

True, the darkened paths and shaded areas are dangerous at night and
no one ventures through the park alone. But is this a reason to deny
ourselves the pleasures of having a similar park for ourselves and future
generations?
Elizabeth Fessel
Laguna Woods

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:39 am:
 

Making Sense of Redistricting

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050385.html
 

Two things can be said with assurance about Orange County's upcoming
reconfiguration of supervisorial districts. The first is that the meandering
lines that currently exist are likely to be replaced with new meandering
lines. The second is that politics will be at play no matter how things look.
 

Realistically speaking, political considerations are intrinsic to redistricting.
But they ought not lead to bizarre maps. These decisions will affect the
county for a long time. Even the most self-serving political calculations
will, if successful, aid their architects only for a short time.

Although a number of proposals are on the table, the reality is that the
decision will be made by the county supervisors alone. James Campbell,
an aide to Supervisor Chuck Smith, is chairman of the committee
considering proposals. Initially, his eight options were the only ones
coming from supervisors, but last week one was submitted from the
office of Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad. A total of 13 proposals last week,
including some from outside groups, were whittled to about six.

Smith has been a lightning rod of division within the county, so an
approach to redistricting that is led from his office is bound to raise some
concerns. It was Smith who dug in his heels during his tenure as chairman
of the Board of Supervisors on the El Toro airport controversy and left
the county today with unresolved geopolitical differences.

Campbell has come up with a plan that puts most of South County in one
district and dilutes the power of Irvine, the El Toro base's immediate
neighbor, by combining it in a newly configured third district. If that plan
prevails, it could leave the county with only one seat representing
interests from Irvine south.

Configuring districts that play to the political strengths of incumbent board
members is to be expected. But the official plan would be short-sighted if
it made the El Toro airport debate the deciding factor in redistricting.

It's very possible that the fate of the airport will be decided one way or
the other next March in a ballot initiative. The redistricting plan that
supervisors approve will have to be lived with for a decade. It makes no
sense to have one policy issue or political ambition be the determinant of
the shape of county representation.

Another consideration is that term limits will come into play on any
decision to configure districts around the ambitions of any particular set
of incumbents. Everyone now sitting on the board will be gone by 2006.

New district boundaries should serve the constituents first, not those who
serve. Among the factors to consider are whether a seat is created that
maximizes the voting strength of Latinos. The current configuration splits
Santa Ana, which is 76% Latino, into three districts. Asians also have
increased in numbers. The plans now under consideration have the
benefit of placing the county seat within one district, which is a good
starting point. A plan proposed by the League of United Latin American
Citizens maximizes Latino strength not only in Santa Ana, but also in
Anaheim.

The League of Women Voters' proposal places a high premium on
keeping existing cities intact. That avoids unnecessary rancor, as surely
would follow splitting Irvine. Moreover, the county has undergone a
period of incorporation, and keeping existing cities together would make
it easier for supervisors to work with city representatives.
 

One way or the other, the public hasn't been involved enough to date,
and should be. Supervisors will hold their first public hearing on the
boundaries June 26 and will select the final map July 17. Ultimately, this is
the public's business and the public should be heard.

Inevitably, redistricting will come down to arm-wrestling among
supervisors. But while practicing realpolitik, supervisors should recognize
the new muscle of cities. They represent sophisticated entities that
citizens identify with, perhaps more than with the county board.

These are different times, requiring an approach that helps both the
county and the cities.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:45 am:
 

Ontario Can Be O.C.'s Airport

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010617/t000050391.html

By JOHN WALTER KRAUS

As long as Newport Beach and South County remain antagonists
regarding the reuse of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, no real
progress toward a solution is likely. Money will continue to be spent
needlessly and ineffectively, and accusations of inaccurate propaganda
will continue to fly.

I believe an approach can be accepted by both parties as well as the
various pilots associations, the FAA and San Bernardino County. There
can be no doubt that an airport at El Toro would impose undesirable
noise and pollution on people who live, work or study in its vicinity. Those
of us who have lived under the takeoff path for John Wayne Airport, as I
have for 31 years, cannot in good faith suggest otherwise.

These conditions should not be imposed on South County. By the same
token, Newport Beach residents are entitled to the fine quality of life
currently enjoyed by South County. Therefore, I propose that John
Wayne Airport be closed as a commercial airfield and the El Toro base be
put to a non-airport use.

Instead, John Wayne should be used as the Orange County terminus of a
high-speed rail system connecting John Wayne Airport and Ontario
International Airport. The Orange County passengers would fly out of
Ontario, which is an international airport.

Ontario can now accommodate 10 million passengers a year in two new
terminal buildings and has room for expansion. Thus Orange County
transcontinental and overseas passengers would fly directly from Ontario,
relieving LAX of some of the burden. Orange County travelers who now
must use LAX for international and direct transcontinental flights would
check in and check baggage at either John Wayne or Ontario, depending
on which is closer.

Airline ticketing and baggage checking would be carried out by the fine
facilities now used for that purpose at John Wayne. Parking has already
been provided. The runways at John Wayne would be closed to
commercial flights, and the area opened up could be devoted to
expansion of parking and the addition of industrial and commercial
complexes similar to those that now surround the field.

The technology for high-speed railways is well within the state of the art.
A route following the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways and Route 83
should be considered to avoid disrupting communities.

This would significantly reduce automobile, shuttle and bus travel, with its
attendant pollution, to and from LAX. Pressures on Los Angeles to
expand LAX would be significantly reduced. Safety would be enhanced by
closing John Wayne as an airfield and not developing an El Toro airport.

First, Federal Aviation Administration control of the airspace would be
simplified if John Wayne and El Toro were eliminated.

Second, takeoff and landing procedures at both John Wayne Airport and
the proposed El Toro commercial airport present many safety challenges.
Eliminating both airports should be a major step toward safer flights.

Much of the cost of developing the proposed regional air travel plan can
be covered by issuing revenue bonds, as was done so successfully to
finance John Wayne Airport. Additional help should be available from the
federal government and agencies such as the Southern California Assn. of
Governments. A regional air travel authority should be established to
explore, plan and refine the implementation of the idea.

I would very much like to see the Orange County civil war end. I firmly
believe that we need a regionally integrated plan that will preserve South
County's quality of life, enhance Newport Beach's and make good use of
John Wayne's fine facilities.
- - -

John Walter Kraus Writes From Newport Beach

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.80 - 216.115.226.80) on Sunday,
 June 17, 2001 - 06:53 am:
 

Editorial…LA Times (NPB Metro)…6/17/01

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010617/tdp0020281.html
 

Airport fight needs everyone flying together
 

With the historic settlement agreement that limited flights at John Wayne
Airport set to expire in 2005, and a commercial airport at El Toro far
from being realized, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa officials are rightly
worrying these days over what future air traffic growth will mean to their
communities.

And they are taking action. Newport Beach, in concert with the Airport
Working Group, a citizen coalition originally formed to fight airport
expansion at John Wayne, has embarked on an effort to extend that
settlement agreement into the year 2026 with minor growth in flights.

And just last month, the city of Costa Mesa joined the fray and handed
the Airport Working Group $15,000 to spend toward extending those
flight restrictions at John Wayne.

What transpired after that stunned Costa Mesa officials. The Airport
Working Group this month gave Costa Mesa back its money, saying
thanks but no thanks. The reason for the snub? Costa Mesa officials
wanted the money solely spent on John Wayne issues, not for the
promotion of an airport at El Toro.

We find the refusal of the money surprising also, especially considering
the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group has a long history of
fighting the expansion of John Wayne Airport.

Reaching its peak in the early 1980s, the group, stocked with bright
minds like Barbara Lichman and former mayors Clarence Turner and Tom
Edwards, was a force to be reckoned with on the county scene. Indeed
the historic airport settlement agreement in 1985 was struck between
the county, the FAA, the airlines, the city of Newport Beach, the Airport
Working Group and the environmental group, Stop Polluting Our Newport.
 

The residents of Newport-Mesa owe a great debt to those early pioneers.
Today, the Airport Working Group's focus has shifted and its leaders
believe an El Toro airport is the answer to John Wayne woes. In fact, the
group's consultant, Dave Ellis, recently said the two issues can't be
separated.

"It's like hot dogs and a baseball game," Ellis said. "You can't talk about
one without the other."

But that is simply not true. In fact, Newport Beach officials are doing
exactly that today, talking about one without the other.

With the blessings of the very same Airport Working Group, the city of
Newport Beach is holding discussions with county officials over the new
John Wayne settlement agreement, and the issue of El Toro is not even
on the table.

Having said that, though, we also wonder what is the harm in allowing
the Airport Working Group to discuss with Costa Mesa residents why El
Toro is a viable option to the air travel dilemma.

Surely, the people of Costa Mesa are capable of hearing all the facts and
making up their own minds on whether or not an El Toro airport is an
idea that should be supported.

So we urge the Airport Working Group and the city of Costa Mesa to put
political differences aside and instead work together on the airport fight.

Like those early pioneers in the airport battle, they too can achieve the
common goal of keeping John Wayne expansion at a manageable level
and maybe even come up with solutions for the county's future air travel
needs.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Sunday, June 17,
 2001 - 10:23 am:
 

OC Register, Commentary, June 17
Weasel Park

Would you open your wallet - or run for the hills - if the financial plan for a
start-up company was filled with what-ifs, maybes and other imprecise
words rather than firm financial explanations?

You'd run for the hills. Yet Orange County taxpayers are being asked to
buy off on a plan to turn the 4,700-acre El Toro Marine Corps Air Station
into a Great Park, even though the financial forecast is based on wishes
and dreams. A key document outlining the Great Pork, er, Park proposal
- now the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative,
slated for the March 2002 ballot - is the city of Irvine's September 2000
review of potential revenue sources for funding the plan.

Thanks to an analysis by park foes, we learn that the financial forecast is
filled with weasel words - 278, by their count. The forecast has plenty of
"potentials" (46), "coulds" (44), "cans" (35), "shoulds" (22), "assumes"
(16), as well as "likelys" (16), "estimateds" (12) and "probablys" (5).
Quite a few "typicallys" (5), "approximatelys" (7) and "reportedlys" (5)
also. And those are just the weasel words in the financial part of the
document. Yikes. But don't worry. Trust Irvine Mayor Larry Agran,
Supervisor Todd Spitzer and others who say a park akin to New York's
Central Park can be ours for free - no strings, no new taxes, just a
pay-for-itself proposition.

Maybe so. But, then again, probably not.

 By northwood (24.4.254.62 - 24.4.254.62) on Sunday, June 17,
 2001 - 12:02 pm:
 

Coad study provides questionable data - Reg's MCAS El Toro Reuse by
Douglas Brown, who lives in Aliso Viejo, works in the in-flight
entertainment industry and was active in qualifying Measure F for the
March 2000 ballot.

Your UnSpin column on June 10 did just the opposite [Commentary].
Regarding the Central Park initiative for MCAS EL Toro, you have, once
again, demonstrated your ignorance of fact and willingness to spin the
issue exactly as Newport Beach wants.

First, if you had read and understood the Central Park initiative, you
would have seen that the park is much more than acres of grass. The
plan provides for education (universities, public & private, R&D), culture
(museums, libraries, performing arts, etc.) recreation (swimming, biking,
etc.) plus nature preserve. Making it sound like 4,700 acres of grass is
not helpful to the discussion, it is sheer pro-airport SPIN.

Second, the casual, unscientific usage "analysis" by Supervisor Coad
proves two things 1) that Coad is in the pocket of the few remaining rich
pro-airport special interests and 2)that virtually all the meager and poorly
maintained facilities now in operation at El Toro are a secret from county
residents. Basing any decision on such questionable data would be a
serious error in county management. If Supervisors Smith, Silva & Coad
wanted the stables, golf course and other facilities to flourish and grow
they would polish them and promote them aggressively. It's called
advertising, those dollars I think you understand. The truth is, those 3
supervisors do not want those facilities to succeed and have put up
barriers for years. In reading so much into Coad's Zip Codes, you have
shown once again your willingness add you pro-airport SPIN based scant
real data.

Third, virtually ANY park draws more from the closest neighborhoods but
the major facilities we can build in the next 20 years will be a major asset
to all OC residents. You state that there is no reason to expect that the
Central Park would draw users from the entire county. That must mean
that you are either self-designated regional park designers or you accept
Coad's pitiful attempt at research. Just ask San Diego from where Balboa
Park draws. Or LA from where Griffith Park draws. Do the independent
research, not just repeat the mantra of George Argyros, the AWG and
OCRAA. If you had an ounce of vision and objectivity you would see
Coad's "analysis" for what it really is: Newport Beach pro-airport SPIN.
Do your own research!

Lastly, what you refuse to acknowledge is that the reuse of El Toro as
the Central Park and Nature Preserve will be planned by ALL county
residents over the next 20 years. It will be paid for on a pay as we go
basis. The difference here is we will ALL be included in the planning as
opposed to the systematic exclusion county voters have been seeing
from Smith, Silva & Coad for the last years. Agricultural and existing
military facilities alone can contribute approximately $25 million per year
to build an endowment for Central Park.

When will you guys get it? The $3 billion El Toro airpork is dead. It will be
buried March 5, 2002 and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Editor's note: The Register has not taken a position in favor of an airport
at El Toro. We do support a more market-based approach to finding the
best use of the land, which we find wanting in both the pro-airport
supervisors' approach and in the Central Park initiative.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Sunday, June 17,
 2001 - 09:19 pm:
 

Ah, but the Register endorsed Measure F so they're not all bad. The
Times did not.

The problem with some editorial writers is that they want the solution
that they can't have. The Times wants a new LRA. The Register wants to
sell the land.

Here's what I wrote to them:
Trees or Jets

The Register criticizes the County's airport plan for El Toro. The paper
also criticizes the Central Park alternative for El Toro. (Commentary,
"Weasel Park", June 17, 2001) The Register editorial staff wants the land
sold to the highest bidder and wants the marketplace to decide what gets
built in the heart of Orange County. Some agree, like Kevin Keyes who
wrote, "Best Solution for El Toro: Auction the land".

There are two fatal flaws in this highest-bidder approach. First, most
citizens of Orange County don't want the land sold for thousands of
acres of housing and malls, with the resultant traffic gridlock, pollution
and loss of open space.

Furthermore, the option to sell El Toro for private development does not,
and will not exist. No one has put it on the table as a legally binding
alternative. Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad are rushing full speed
ahead to build LAX-South at El Toro. They refuse to consider any other
proposals. Only the voters, placing an alternate land use plan into law,
can stop them.

A huge airport will be built in the heart of Orange County, unless the O.C.
Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative is passed next March. If the
voters approve it, as most people expect, then there will be no airport.
We will gradually build schools, health care facilities, museums, sports
sites, and cultural and recreational uses at the former base.

After years of divisive debate, it has come down to a voter's choice
between only two alternatives on the table. Trees or jets.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.85 - 216.115.226.85) on Monday,
 June 18, 2001 - 05:48 am:
 

The Buzz

http://www.ocregister.com/local/buzz00618cci.shtml

Supervisors' union ploy has yielded little support.

June 18, 2001

Critics of the push to build an airport at the former El Toro Marine base
are in full chortle these days over the Board of Supervisors' bid to win
labor support by requiring that major county projects use union labor.
The January 2000 gambit by the majority faction of Chuck Smith, Jim
Silva and Cynthia Coad appeared to generate few votes against
anti-airport Measure F last spring, which won in all but two of the
county's cities. And last week, the labor pact prompted an unusual
rebuke of the all-Republican board by Orange County's five GOP
congressmen, who urged supervisors to scrap the deal.

"The board took a foolish gamble, and it didn't pay off," said Irvine
Councilman Mike Ward. "Labor didn't get out and help defeat Measure F
and won't help on the next initiative (a planned March vote to turn El
Toro into a park) either."

It was a year ago this week that County Executive Officer Jan
Mittermeier was given the boot by a unanimous board after a
months-long power struggle over whether she would surrender control of
El Toro planning. Most supervisors now say they wish Mittermeier's exit
had been less acrimonious, but not her biggest board critic. Todd Spitzer
essentially says good riddance: "For the last year, the board's actually
been able to supervise. ... You can't operate the county day-to-day as a
dictatorship."

Mittermeier, who's been working as a consultant and teaching part time
at California State University, Long Beach, did not return calls last week.

Meanwhile, Mittermeier's successor - veteran county official Michael
Schumacher - has gone a year in office virtually unscathed.

"He's done a very good job. He's an excellent manager," said Smith, who
as board chairman during the last 18 months of Mittermeier's five-year
tenure consulted almost daily with the CEO.

Not any more. "I haven't seen her or talked to her since she left," Smith
said.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Monday, June 18,
 2001 - 07:54 am:
 

LA Times, Home Edition June 17, 2001

El Monte Airport Lands on the Map

Aviation: L.A. County adds a $1.5-million terminal, complete with a
lounge and space for an eatery, making it a destination for pilots.

By: STEPHANIE CHAVEZ TIMES STAFF WRITER

Van Nuys Airport owns the title of busiest general aviation field in the
world. Santa Monica Airport offers visitors the Typhoon Restaurant,
Pan-Asian cuisine and plane parking available. Chino features the Planes of
Fame Museum. And then there is El Monte Airport.

"As a destination, ain't nothing at all to draw you to El Monte," said pilot
Bob Clark, who knows airports--he's landed at every one in California.

But after years of being airport non grata in general aviation circles, El
Monte is coming of age. Los Angeles County, which owns the facility, has
built an approximately $1.5-million terminal, complete with a lounge,
computerized weather data, a direct line to the Federal Aviation
Administration and space for a restaurant.

In the clubby world of pilots--who for fun spend $100 flying across the
state for a burger at some greasy airport restaurant--this is big news. It's
a new destination, another reason for the weekend pilot to go
putt-putting around Southern California airspace.

In celebration, a bunch of San Gabriel Valley pilots held a barbecue
Saturday outside their soon-to-be-open terminal, with its floor-to-ceiling
windows with a view of the airfield.

For general aviation pilots, small airports such as El Monte are much like
parks, gathering places to socialize and pursue their hobby: flying.

Beneath the shade of a tarp on a grassy tarmac area, they talked about
planes and how their hometown airfield is about to become a brighter
beacon to fellow pilots.

"We feel complete now as an airport," said Scott Stevenson, president of
the San Gabriel Valley Airport Assn. "Now we will have a place to go, a
place to meet people, all the basics that we've never had."

For business travelers who fly in small planes, the new terminal building
means that El Monte--the closest general aviation field to downtown Los
Angeles--has a chance to increase sagging business. Currently, half of its
700 tie-down spaces are leased, and a few hangars are vacant.

Law enforcement agencies that use the airport and delivery service
providers will have a sound base of operation. Visitors will no longer have
to stand on a patch of dry grass near the tarmac when waiting for
arrivals to taxi in. Pilots will have a place to rest and file flight plans. A
community meeting room will be available.

And for those aviation enthusiasts who make a hobby out of watching
flying machines take off and land, the terminal will offer a raised terrace
with tables and umbrellas overlooking the 4,000-foot runway.

Most of the pilots have simple tastes. They are looking forward to a
coffee shop where they can enjoy an after-flight meal and chat with their
buddies.

"That's what we do. We fly somewhere Sunday, have breakfast or lunch
and fly home," said Bill Borghardt, who owns three small planes and has
been flying for 33 years. Borghardt was active in the airport association
back in the late '70s, when the group first asked the county to build a
terminal.

"The new terminal is long overdue," said Tom Lowry, the airport project
manager for the county's Department of Public Works.

The county owns five airports that last year generated $8.2 million. The
largest, in terms of revenue, is Brackett Field in La Verne, followed by
Whiteman in Pacoima, El Monte, Compton and Fox Field in Lancaster.

A private contractor, American Airports Corp., runs the five airports. The
firm guarantees the county at least $2.8 million in profit from all the
airport operations. That money is reinvested in airport maintenance and
improvements, Lowry said, including payments on the construction loan
to build the El Monte terminal.

Although El Monte can't compare in popularity with, say, Catalina Airport
or Big Bear, with their awesome views and nearby recreational offerings,
it is known as a good place to learn to fly.

Student pilots don't have to compete with jets, like at Van Nuys and
Burbank, and the air traffic is relatively tame.

For California history buffs, El Monte Airport does hold a special
distinction. Its central location made it the ideal base of operation for the
notorious fleet of Bell 204 helicopters that in the dark of night sprayed
malathion over wide sectors of Los Angeles and Orange counties during
the great Mediterranean fruit fly infestation of 1989-90.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.89 - 216.115.226.89) on Tuesday,
 June 19, 2001 - 05:11 am:
 

Airport opponents emphasize health risks

http://www.ocregister.com/local/toro0061901cci.shtml

Coalition points to revised report acknowledging likely effects on air
quality.

June 19, 2001

The Orange County Register

Opponents of a proposed El Toro airport say the county's revised
environmental impact report shows health risks of a new commercial
airport to be much greater than previously stated.

In comments filed Friday in response to the revised document, a coalition
of anti-airport cities also said the county has admitted El Toro is not
necessary because other airports in the region could handle the projected
growth in demand for air travel.

The county released a revised environmental study in April after
successful legal challenges to earlier El Toro air-quality findings. The
revised study acknowledges that the airport would have significant and
unavoidable effects on the region's air.

County officials could not be reached for comment Monday. But they
have previously defended the air-quality studies.

Airport backers also have maintained that even if other airports could
expand to accommodate the forecast growth in air travel, El Toro is still
needed for the county's future

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.89 - 216.115.226.89) on Tuesday,
 June 19, 2001 - 05:24 am:
 

Cities outside Newport-Mesa claim flights have increased

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010619/tdp0020319.html
 

Officials in Orange and Irvine say more planes flying over their cities are
creating more noise.

By PAUL CLINTON

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- Costa Mesa and Newport Beach residents
aren't the only ones concerned about the noise from planes landing at
the airport.

Orange has stepped into the fray, with elected officials from that city
publicly complaining about what they say are increases in flights and noise
over that city's homes.

"More planes tend to be flying over east Orange, which is residential,"
Orange Councilman Dan Slater said. "I talk to friends in east Orange on
the phone when a plane is going by, and it's quite loud. I don't think you
can have a discussion outdoors when a plane is flying over."

While flights have been on the rise, the real problem, officials in Orange,
Tustin and other cities say, is a wider dispersion of flights over a larger
geographic area.

Orange put its concerns in writing in March when Mayor Mark Murphy
sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration. The city objected to a
shift of arriving planes eastward, increases in aircraft operations,
nighttime landings and takeoffs, and low-flying planes.

Officials at John Wayne Airport acknowledged they have received more
complaints from Orange, Tustin and even Irvine, in recent months.

"I think it's substantially a perception," said John Leyerle, the airport's
access and noise manager. "All the complaints we receive are valid."

Leyerle, however, said the airport has seen increases in the number of
daily flights. In 1990, the airport counted 65 arrivals each day, compared
to 125 today.

Since the letter was sent to the FAA, that agency formally responded to
it. In an April 17 letter to Orange, FAA Regional Administrator William
Withycombe said he couldn't confirm that flights have increased "in all
directions of the community," as the letter stated.

Flights landing at John Wayne typically take two routes. Planes from the
north come in from Catalina Island, while those that come in from the
east cross over Saddleback. Eastern arrivals fly over Villa Park, Orange,
North Tustin, Tustin, parts of Irvine, eastern Costa Mesa and on to the
airport.

On their approach, flights usually follow the Costa Mesa Freeway.
However, pilots are given leeway by FAA air-traffic regulators to veer off
course if needed. Those "over flights" have caused the biggest uproar
among the affected cities.

"The FAA has no evidence that indicates the aircraft overflights referenced
by Murphy are being conducted unsafely or inconsistently with federal
regulations," Withycombe wrote in his letter.

Flights began to divert from their usual patterns, Slater said, shortly after
the closure of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

At the time, the FAA lifted restrictions on airspace previously reserved for
military flights. Irvine was hit hard at the time, said Dan Jung, that city's
director of special programs.

"The way I learned about it was through a flood of citizen calls
[stemming] from low-flying planes crisscrossing over Irvine," Jung said.

Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan has also said publicly he has
noticed more planes in the skies over the eastern portion of his city.

The increases in flights could get worse, Newport Beach officials said, if
John Wayne remains the only county airport.

Newport Beach has held a series of meetings with staff members of
other North County cities.
Without naming anyone, Newport Beach Councilman Tod Ridgeway said
the city has been frustrated by the lack of understanding in some other
cities about that potential scenario.

"That's one of our frustrations," Ridgeway said. "They're just not aware
of the impacts John Wayne has on their cities. . . . We're trying hard to
get that information out to them."

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.86 - 216.115.226.86) on Wednesday,
 June 20, 2001 - 05:32 am:
 

Airport mailers to take flight

http://www.ocregister.com/local/toro00620cci.shtml
 

County sets aside $2 million for postage on some 12 million brochures.
June 20, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

County supervisors bought $2 million of postage for pro-El Toro airport
mail on Tuesday - approving funds to mail nearly 12 million glossy
brochures over the next year.

The mail money comes from $5 million that supervisors this year gave to
a pro-airport coalition of cities to promote a commercial airfield at El
Toro, a former Marine base. It comes from John Wayne Airport
revenues.

On a 3-2 vote, supervisors shifted the funds into a postage account, to
be tapped as needed by the firms running public relations campaigns for
the county and the pro-airport cities group.

"All it's going to do is fill many mailboxes, and many garbage cans,'' said
Supervisor Tom Wilson, who with fellow airport opponent Todd Spitzer
criticized the mailings as an improper effort to influence residents to back
an airport and oppose a proposed March 2002 initiative to put a park
there instead.

But board Chairwoman Cynthia Coad said the county long has needed a
PR campaign to counter that of anti-airport cities.

A coalition of anti-airport cities sent about 2 million of their own slick
brochures during the fiscal year about to end. The city of Irvine budgeted
money for 5 million mailers in the same period.

Supervisors also approved a $7.4 million extension of the county's
contract with CABACO, the firm that oversees the maintenance and
management of El Toro.

After repeated extensions, the CABACO contract has grown from $1.8
million in October 1998 to $23.5 million.

CABACO has overseen public programs at the base, such as golf and
stables, but those along with management of the old Officer's Club will be
put out to bid during the next fiscal year.

The Arizona-based company will continue to maintain the base property
and buildings, and run the RV storage there for the next four years.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.86 - 216.115.226.86) on Wednesday,
 June 20, 2001 - 05:41 am:
 

Supervisors Give a Nod to Frequent Flier Funds

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010620/t000051254.html

El Toro: O.C. board allots $2 million to pay for postage for about 30
mailers over a yearlong period. Airport foes call it a 'waste of money.'

By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer

With a public relations tab now running at $8 million, the pro-airport
majority on the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday
approved paying for postage for more than two dozen mailers to
residents.

The action, approved 3 to 2, authorizes Gary Simon, director of the El
Toro planning agency, to use $2 million of those funds for postage for
about 30 mailers over a yearlong period.

Some of the mailers will go countywide, while others will be targeted to
specific areas. They will include color newsletters for the pro-airport
Orange County Regional Airport Authority and newsletters and bulletins
for open houses sponsored by the Local Redevelopment Authority.

The $8-million budget, appropriated this year, comes from non-aviation
revenue at John Wayne Airport and not from taxpayer funds, said Chuck
Smith, a pro-airport supervisor who urged approval of the postage
money.

But anti-airport Supervisor Tom Wilson criticized the authorization as a
"total waste of money," and called it part of an illegal campaign because
it goes beyond the informational threshold and politically promotes an
airport.

"The way I see it, if it walks like a campaign, looks like a campaign and
talks like a campaign, it is a campaign," Wilson said.

Anti-airport forces in South County are trying to collect 71,206 valid
signatures for an anti-airport measure to go on the March ballot. The
initiative would replace airport zoning, approved by voters in 1994, with a
designation for parkland and a nature preserve. A specific plan for the
former Marine base, called the Great Park, was developed by Irvine and is
supported by a coalition of South County cities.

But Smith and the two other pro-airport supervisors have said they want
to give residents information coming from the county to counter
"misinformation" by anti-airport sources like the El Toro Reuse Planning
Authority and Irvine.

Between June 2000 and May 2001, ETRPA and Irvine distributed 22
mailers.

According to the county's proposal, Amies Communication in
Irvine--which recently won a $3-million contract to work on airport public
relations--will mail six color newsletters during the year to 965,000
households; each mailing would be on behalf of the planning agency. The
postage allocation also covers 12 pieces to an additional 40,000 targeted
residents for a total of $840,000.

Additionally, the public relations firm Townsend, Raimundo, Besler & Usher
will produce and distribute 12 color mailers on behalf of the regional
airport authority to 475,000 households. No plan has been finalized with
Townsend, but according to estimates, the authority plans to spend at
least $942,000 on the mailings, county officials said.

In March, the board approved giving $5 million to the pro-airport Orange
County Regional Airport Authority for a public-information campaign on El
Toro.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer questioned why there were targeted areas,
including some of the airport authority's former member cities--such as
Villa Park, which recently voted to leave the authority.

"Didn't Villa Park recently come up during a discussion because they
recently left OCRAA yet they will receive mailers?" Spitzer said.

"Yes, Villa Park will be included," Simon said. "Because there they think
planes would be flying over their city and it's just not true."

The county has spent little on airport public relations in the last 15
months. After the passage of anti-airport initiative Measure F last year,
county officials were barred from spending money to promote the
proposed airport. Measure F has since been overturned.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 05:29 am:
 

Supervisors OK Contract for El Toro Management

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010621/t000051561.html

County supervisors this week approved a one-year contract with Cabaco
Inc. to continue the firm's management of the closed El Toro Marine
base, but with separate contracts for maintenance and operations.

The company will continue its $3.8-million contract to provide
maintenance at the base through June 2002, including management of
the golf course, RV storage area and stables. When that contract expires,
the county will seek bids to operate those programs and the officers club,
which will eventually be reopened.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 05:39 am:
 

Briefly in the news

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010621/tdp0020372.html
 

Anti-El Toro airport cities respond to county report
 

South County cities fighting Orange County's plan for an airport at the
closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station submitted nearly 300 questions
and comments about the environmental report.

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority forwarded its comments to the
county's airport planning office so they can be included with other
reaction to Environmental Impact Report 573. The county released a
revised version of the report in April in response to an authority lawsuit
that had challenged an earlier review.

In that case, a judge ordered that the county beef up its analysis of the
effects of increased pollution and traffic on communities surrounding the
4,700-acre base.

In its revision, the county projected increases in carbon monoxide,
nitrogen oxide and other pollutants. Authority spokeswoman Meg
Waters, in a statement Monday, said the county has still understated the
negative effects of an airport at the base.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 05:46 am:
 

City officials clarify flight increase misperception

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010621/tdp0020373.html
 

Newport Beach council members say corridor cities are simply more
sensitive to JWA flights now.

By PAUL CLINTON

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- Complaints about increased jet noise from
cities in the airport's flight corridor may be misplaced, officials said.

The complaints, crystallized in a March letter from the city of Orange to
the Federal Aviation Administration, could be traced to a change in
perception rather than actual increases, Newport Beach Councilwoman
Norma Glover said.

The change could be due to the heating up of the debate over whether
the county can execute its plan to build an airport at the closed El Toro
Marine Corps Air Station.

"The El Toro issue has raised people's sensitivity to noise," Glover said.

Glover and others were skeptical of the claims made by Orange officials.

In a response letter, an FAA administrator said he could find no evidence
of planes operating out of the norm. FAA spokesman Jerry Snyder
reiterated that opinion.

"We can't find anything that suggests we're operating anywhere out of
the normal range for traffic in and out of John Wayne Airport," Snyder
said.

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor, a licensed pilot, said cloudy
weather over the past months may be causing more planes to take a
specific path arriving into John Wayne.

Under overcast conditions, all arriving planes must use the airport's
Instrument Landing System, an invisible laser sent from the runway to
the plane's navigational system.

"On bad weather days, the airplanes are concentrated on the same
pattern," Proctor said. "It's purely a function of weather."

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 05:51 am:
 

Survey says Newport Beach wants El Toro

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010621/tdp0020389.html
 

Report finds that 80% of residents want an airport at the former base
and want to keep JWA restrictions.

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT BEACH -- A city-funded phone survey of 250 households
revealed two less than Earth shattering conclusions: They support an
airport at the closed El Toro Marine base, as well as continued restrictions
at John Wayne Airport.

However, the survey, at least according to some city officials, suggests a
somewhat more ominous revelation. Newport Beach residents widely
believe an airport will be built at El Toro, a development that is far from a
certainty.

Councilwoman Norma Glover, who said she had not seen the survey,
said residents constantly ask her why the passage of Measure A in 1994
hasn't led to an airport at El Toro. That countywide measure changed the
zoning at the base to aviation.

"There's a strong feeling in Newport Beach that El Toro will be built,
should be built," Glover said. "Most people understand that, with Measure
A, our side won. Their question is 'Why hasn't it been built?"'

In the informal poll, which was conducted in March, about 80% of
respondents agreed that the city should push for dual goals.

Countywide, support for an airport at El Toro may be close to an all-time
low. In a telephone survey by Chapman University in late April, nearly
two-thirds of the more than 1,000 residents surveyed said they would
support a South County ballot measure, set for March, to transform the
base into a central park.

Newport Beach and county officials have begun studying proposals to
extend John Wayne's flight restrictions beyond their expiration in 2005.

The pro-El Toro group Citizens for Jobs and the Economy oversaw the
polling over a three-day period, according to the group's president, Bruce
Nestande.

Residents at 250 households were also asked whether they supported
the city concentrating its efforts toward only one of the goals. Less than
20% supported that tack.

"What it told us is that what we're trying to do is consistent with what
the citizens of Newport Beach want us to do," Councilman Gary Proctor
said.

Nestande declined to name the polling firm he used in the survey. He said
a city grant paid for the work. Proctor said the city had asked for the poll.
 

Nestande said the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four
percentage points.

South County leaders questioned the validity of the poll. Meg Waters, a
spokeswoman for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, said the group
didn't get a large enough sample.

There are more than 35,000 households in Newport Beach, making the
sample size less than 1%.

"I'm not shocked" by the results, Waters said. "But I'm concerned about
the validity of it."
Nestande dismissed that critique, saying it was political gamesmanship.

"I could tell [South County] that Jesus Christ sanctioned it and the pope
made the phone calls, and they would question it," Nestande said. "That's
[their] agenda."

QUESTION

What's going on?

Why do you think there is such a discrepancy between countywide
opinion and Newport Beach's opinion on an airport at El Toro? Call our
Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or send e-mail to
dailypilot@latimes.com . Please spell your name and include your
hometown and phone number, for verification purposes only.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 06:01 am:
 

LAX runways most conflicted

http://www.ocregister.com/local/runway00621cci6.shtml

The FAA found the highest level of near- collisions at Los Angeles; John
Wayne had many fewer.
June 21, 2001
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
Los Angeles International Airport had the most near-collisions on its
runways - 13 considered extremely close calls - of any airport in the
nation over the past four years, according to an FAA study released
Wednesday.

In contrast, John Wayne Airport - like airports at Ontario, Long Beach and
Burbank - had two runway incursions considered particularly dangerous
during the same period, the Federal Aviation Administration report stated.
 

"Obviously this is an issue that we want to stay on top of all of the time,"
said John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy. "Even if you have none, it
requires diligence so that you don't become complacent, and we work
really hard at it."

Murphy said he did not know the details of the two near-misses cited in
the study, and FAA officials did not respond to requests for descriptions
of the John Wayne runway incursions.

The airport had a total of 27 incidents during the four-year period, with
most of those listed as minor and not likely to threaten a collision.

Murphy said the airport and the FAA have worked together in recent
years to reduce the chances of runway conflicts, through programs such
as improved markings and signs and educational sessions for airport
users.

Officials at LAX, which had a total of 33 incursions, including the 13
considered serious, did not return calls.

The study was conducted by the FAA to look at the severity of runway
incursions - instances in which two aircraft or an aircraft and another
vehicle could collide with each other on the ground - and then to seek
ways to reduce the likelihood of such threats to the flying public.

Though the FAA long has gathered near-collision statistics, this is the first
time it has ranked such incidents by severity. It used four categories,
from the almost catastrophic, in which pilots had to take "extreme
action" to avoid a collision, to the garden variety, in which pilots
technically entered a runway when they should not, but there was almost
no chance of an accident happening.

The FAA report took pains to stress that runway incursions are rare
events. It examined 1,369 runway incidents at 450 airports. Of those,
256 were in the most-serious category, with three ending in collisions.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Thursday,
 June 21, 2001 - 06:16 am:
 

Tax-funded propaganda

OC Register Editorial

6/21/01

The county supervisors—like south county officials on the other
side—continue to spend citizens' tax money to propagandize everyone
on the El Toro airport issue. The latest allocation came Tuesday when the
supervisors made $2 million available for postage so that some 12 million
glossy brochures illustrating the wonders and marvels of an airport can
be mailed to the county residents over the next year.

It is something of a mystery that there isn't more outrage at the misuse
of taxpayer funds to persuade citizens to take one side or the other on
an obviously political issue, given that an initiative endorsing a Central
Park on the former Marine base is likely to be on the March 2001 ballot.

Is it an illegal use of taxpayer funds, either by the county or south county
cities? Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association told us
such uses fall into a gray area. "Unless there is a specific measure or
candidate on a specific ballot and a specific vote is urged, a good deal of
material that is clearly and blatantly political can be palmed off as
informational," Mr. Coupal said. So while the propagandizing may be
unethical and distasteful, it apparently isn't illegal.

Both sides in the El Toro impasse claim they need to spend tax money
because the other side is doing so.

Both sides are wrong.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.145 - 216.115.226.145) on
 Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 07:11 am:
 

County slaps Laguna Woods with lawsuit

Claims city blocking its El Toro airport plan

By: Cheryl Walker
Leisure World News
6/21/01

The County of Orange is suing the City of Laguna Woods for setting up a
major roadblock in the plan to put a commercial airport at the former
Marine base at El Toro.

The barrier set up by Laguna Woods was a recent amendment to its
general plan which removed language relating to an airport at El Toro.

The County is crying foul over the amendment and is asking the courts to
invalidate both the general plan and the amendment claiming they
endanger residents of the city who will be stripped of legal protections
against-airport generated noise, pollution, safety hazards and potential
airline crashes.

The 3-2 decision to sue was made in closed session following the Board
of Supervisors' June 13 meeting. The vote was split in the usual pro vs.
anti-airport stance with Chairwoman Cynthia Coad, Chuck Smith, and
James Silva voting in favor and Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson
voting against.

The 10 page suit was filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court. The
city was served by mail on Wednesday.

Although the county suit contains what it claims are numerous errors in
the city's general plan, the primary focus is on airport elements.

The county is claiming the general plan amendment was invalid since the
city failed to address the potential impact of an airport in an
environmental impact report.

The city chose instead to file a negative declaration which claimed the
amendment would have no environmental impact.

The suit argues that Laguna Woods has no right to take that position
since the county, backed by provisions in the California Environmental
Quality Act, the Southern California Association of Governments Regional
Transportation Plan (for an airport), the provisions of Measure A
(mandating an airport at El Toro in the county's general plan), case law
and state code, is planning an airport at the former base.

It goes on to catalogue how the amendment puts a monkey wrench in
that plan for failing to address environmental issues like noise pollution,
safety, impact on air traffic controls, limitations on development and
other hazards and precautions for living near or under the flyover zone of
an airport.

And, it adds, that removing the language could put a potential burden on
landowners if, at a later date, they tried to re-implement the restrictions.

The county is asking the court to invalidate the general plan and halt the
implementation of the amendment.

The phones started ringing in City Hall early last Thursday, questioning
reports about the Board of Supervisors' suit.

City manager Leslie Keane said the city couldn't comment on the suit until
City Attorney Julie Biggs has a chance to study it.

The only clue the city had about the suit prior to its filing was found in a
"reportable action" release following the Supervisors June 13 closed
session stating that the "initiation of litigation" was approved by a 3-2
vote and focused on an amendment to the Laguna Woods general plan.

County counsel Jack Golden said the Board of Supervisors was
concerned that the Laguna Woods City Council's recent amendment to
its general plan, removing all language having to do with an airport at the
former Marine base left the community vulnerable to the effects of an
airport, like noise pollution and other personal and property safety issues.
 

Golden wrote the city in April saying that the county contends the air
station is still an airport and warned that if the city chose to ignore that
conclusion, Laguna Woods "would take upon itself any liability for
damages to property or personal injury … that would otherwise have
inured to the airport proprietor."

The same month, the city also received a letter from Joan Golding,
Airport Land Use Commission executive officer, who also took issue with
the city's amended general plan for being contrary to the Airport Environs
Land Use Plan for Orange County and sections of the Public Utilities Code
regarding "current plans for a future commercial passenger and air cargo
airport at that (El Toro) site."

Golding suggested the city change its "no environmental impact"
(negative declaration) stand to a "potentially significant impact" stand,
with regard to airport noise, potential accident zones, safety and so
forth.

Laguna Woods City Councilman Bert Hack, a long-time opponent of an El
Toro airport, called the suit "politically motivated" and an action which
could come back to haunt its proponents.

He noted that the county's concerns about the potential environmental
impacts of an airport were exactly those opponents of a commercial
airport at El Toro have been pointing to all along.

And he noted that Laguna Woods puts a higher priority on the
environmental issues than all other entities since recent federal, UCLA,
and Harvard University studies have confirmed that high levels of pollution
have a detrimental effect of the health and even cause earlier deaths in
seniors.

Said Hack, "Our mission statement for Laguna Woods is to protect the
life, safety, and health of our residents, and we plan to continue to do
just that."

The Golden Rain Foundation sued the United States and won the right to
remove the avigation restrictions on its land placed by the Department of
the Navy during the development of Leisure World, since the base is
officially closed.

To have unrestricted use of the land, however, it needed the city to lift
avigation restrictions on the land placed there when Leisure World was
still under county jurisdiction as an unincorporated area.

The city's amendment would have removed those remaining restrictions.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Thursday, June 21,
 2001 - 04:58 pm:
 

Daily Pilot, June 21 - The Bell Curve

-- Joseph N. Bell

* * * Finally, we have the canonization of Rep. Christopher Cox
(R-Newport Beach), who a few weeks ago -- when his constituents were
struggling with rolling energy blackouts -- voted against price caps to rein
in soaring energy prices. It's a matter of great curiosity to me how
blithefully and uncritically he sails through such votes. But the real
paradox is the tender treatment he receives in Newport-Mesa in light of
his refusal to take a substantial position or play an active role in helping to
resolve the most exacerbating and divisive local dispute in many years:
the El Toro airport. His disappearance on El Toro seems to be OK with the
Newport Beach City Council. Councilman Gary Proctor told the Pilot
recently: "We're not at a point where it would be appropriate for him to
wade in." Councilwoman Norma Glover added that she is briefing Cox
because "It's very important that he know what's happening." If he ever
picked up a local newspaper, it would be pretty clear to him that what's
happening is that we're getting smashed by the South County people and
their Great Park while Cox dithers on about private ownership of an
airport he doesn't support. The only criticism I've heard from local officials
came from Newport Beach Councilman John Heffernan who said: "Cox is
right in the middle of this issue and district and has no opinion. When is
the last time he has spoken out on it?" At least Cox has been consistent
in avoiding the issue. When a local delegation went to Washington
recently to talk up the airport, Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel -- a
member of the group, as well as a constituent of Cox -- said he was
unable to pin down an appointment with Cox to discuss El Toro's future. I
think this failure to connect had a great deal more to do with Cox's
political concerns than Steel's image problems back home. So with that
thought, I'll flee the country. My next dispatch will be from the Normandy
beachhead after I get home. My main concern at the moment is whether
to risk my vacation peace of mind by following the Angels in the
international Herald Tribune. *
JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column appears
Thursdays.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Thursday, June 21,
 2001 - 05:01 pm:
 

LA Times, June 21-Irvine's Buyer-Beware Homes

While Southern California grapples with its need for new airport capacity,
worried neighborhoods are
strategizing to slow or stop the expansions, fearing increased traffic,
noise and pollution. In Irvine, there's
a new twist. The city is attempting to build a new housing development
very near the closed El Toro
Marine Corps Air Station, in the belief that the commercial airport planned
on the site will never be built.
Of course, building houses so close to the flight path is guaranteed to fuel
anti-airport fervor.
The city tonight will begin considering a plan for more than 2,500 homes
so close to the base that the
state Airport Land Use Commission warns against putting child-care
facilities and hospitals on part of the
development. City leaders say they have no qualms about approving
houses so near El Toro.
True, a ballot initiative next year to approve a giant park instead of an
airport at the base is leading
solidly in public opinion polling. However, polls can shift and the ballot
initiative might not be the last
word, especially if it gives rise to lawsuits. So why not wait? Lake Forest,
which also opposes the airport,
is refraining from approving new schools and homes in areas it controls
near the base until it knows
more.

Irvine has an even bigger project in the works close to the far end of the
base, where planes
would take off. Obviously, people moving into these areas won't be
entitled to much sympathy if they bet
the wrong way and get jetliners instead of a park view.
Orange County does need to resolve the future of this base so that Irvine
and other cities can get on
with their lives. In the meantime, let the planners and potential buyers
beware.

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Friday, June 22,
 2001 - 09:23 am:
 

LA Times, June 22
City Cited in Lawsuit Over Nondisclosure
 

Orange County has sued Laguna Woods, alleging the new city improperly
changed its General Plan, which could affect land use, noise and other
issues at the nearby El Toro Marine base. The lawsuit, filed in Orange
County Superior Court on Monday, alleges that Laguna Woods changed
the plan but did not provide the county with a copy of the document,
though it was requested. "The City Council was fully aware of the plans of
[the county] to convert MCAS El Toro to a commercial airport," the
lawsuit states. Laguna Woods officials were not available for comment.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.93 - 216.115.226.93) on Saturday,
 June 23, 2001 - 05:47 am:
 

Proctor seeks to close up debt

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010623/tdp0020453.html
 

The Newport Beach councilman is soliciting donations to help retire about
$25,000 left over from his campaign.

By MATHIS WINKLER

NEWPORT BEACH -- They run. They win. And then they're most likely
stuck with campaign debts to pay off.

Faced with huge bills to pay, some elected officials will bite the bullet and
write off personal funds they've used to support their candidacy. Others
decide to go back to supporters and ask them for help.

That's a step Councilman Gary Proctor recently took to recover some
money.

"I am writing you today to ask for your help to retire a $25,000 personal
campaign debt that I incurred running for city council," Proctor's June 15
letter to supporters began. "It's not easy to ask anyone for money."

Proctor then continued his pitch with a rundown of his work to keep flight
caps at John Wayne Airport and to build an airport at El Toro.

"Airport issues consume a tremendous amount of time and energy," he
wrote. "I am pleased that my colleagues have allowed me to work on
this challenging project."

On Friday, Proctor said he'd simply spent more money than expected.
After hearing from others that postelection fund-raising letters were fairly
common, he decided to give it a shot.

"Whatever I can't retire, I will just have to pay off personally," he said,
adding that he'd spent about $55,000 on his campaign.

Some of his colleagues agreed that Proctor's action wasn't out of the
ordinary. Councilman Tod Ridgeway said he couldn't remember seeing
another mass letter before. But he added that he'd received private
letters from elected leaders asking for money to cover their debts in the
past.

Ridgeway, who won his seat in 1998, said he still had about $19,000 in
personal debts himself. But unlike Proctor, he didn't send out letters to
supporters after the election.

"I'm in a position to absorb it, and it was just a choice I made at that
point in time," he said, adding that his entire campaign cost about
$65,000.

Councilman Steve Bromberg, who along with Proctor was elected in
November, said he could appreciate Proctor's decision.

But although Bromberg also chipped in about $11,500 of his own money,
he didn't send out more fund-raising letters.

"A lot of people suggested a long time ago to send such a letter," said
Bromberg, whose campaign cost about $62,500. "But I didn't feel right
about it. It's just not something I'm comfortable doing. I just took it out
of my own funds."

For Councilman John Heffernan, the third newcomer to the council as a
result of last year's elections, the entire campaign budget of $35,000
came out of his own pocket.

"I wish [Proctor] the best, but I have a different philosophy," Heffernan
said, adding that he self-financed his campaign to avoid feelings of owing
supporters any favors.

Looking ahead, Ridgeway said there was one way to avoid more debts if
he runs for reelection in 2002.

"If I have nobody running against me, I only need one vote," he said.
"Mine."

He noted that council members Norma Glover and Dennis O'Neil had an
easier time getting reelected in 1998 because no one opposed them.

Glover, who could not be reached for comment Friday, actually has some
money left in her campaign fund. She's used it to support such local
groups as the environmental nature center and Stop Polluting Our
Newport.

If Proctor receives money in the next week as a result of the letter, he'll
have to report it in the next campaign contributions statement, which is
due July 31 and covers the period up to June 30.

 By parrotpaul (4.48.136.105 - 4.48.136.105) on Saturday, June
 23, 2001 - 06:08 am:
 

County strikes back at anti-airport statements

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010623/tdp0020447.html
 

By -- PAUL CLINTON

Irked about a South County press release, Orange County's airport
planning office this week said the anti-airport cities had "misrepresented
facts and incorrectly extrapolated figures."

The county's El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority, the planning arm for
an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base, released the statements in a
six-page response.

The county also accused the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the nine
South County cities fighting to stop the airport, of exaggerating the
health risks of an airport.

In a news release announcing the submittal of nearly 300 questions and
comments about the county's environmental report, anti-airport
spokeswoman Meg Waters said the county underestimated the negative
effects of smog and traffic caused by an airport at El Toro.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.91 - 216.115.226.91) on Sunday,
 June 24, 2001 - 05:02 am:
 

SOUNDING BOARD -- Margie Seegmiller

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010624/tdp0020479.html
 

This is in response to the question, "Why do you think there is such a
discrepancy between countywide opinion and Newport Beach's opinion on
an airport at El Toro?" There are two beliefs that Newport Beach
residents and countywide residents share.

The first is that it is cheaper and more flexible to drive to Los Angeles
International Airport to fly, and most people from Newport Beach, as well
as people in the rest of the county, do precisely that. The second belief is
that airport travel will only increase in the future. This second belief is
where we differ.

Countywide residents that I know truly believe that John Wayne Airport
can easily accommodate the growth by removing flight restrictions and,
therefore, nothing will change for them, personally. As a Newport Beach
resident, not currently living directly under the flight path but one who
drives around and past John Wayne Airport daily, I can see how ludicrous
that belief is.

One need only look at a road map to be struck by the incredible
difference in the two airport sites. Where El Toro is huge and surrounded
by land buffers, John Wayne is tiny and completely landlocked.

Where will all these new airport patrons park? Can you imagine the
inconveniences one will suffer in the future, trying to fly out of a
super-busy John Wayne Airport? I can imagine it, but I'll bet most
countywide residents have rarely seen the environs of John Wayne
Airport, and many have probably never flown from there.

I have been a resident of Newport Beach for the past two years. As a
23-year Sacramento area resident, I have flown into John Wayne to visit
Disneyland numerous times, both before and after its transformation
from a tiny outdoor airport to its present modern state. Each year, I was
faced with the choice of shorter distance to my destination, but more
expensive and more inconvenient flight times, or more flexible and
cheaper flights through LAX, but a longer drive in the rental car.

Most times, my family chose the LAX route. We still do, now that we live
here, for the exact same reasons. When I first moved down here, I was
so excited by the prospect of the El Toro airport being put into use, and
alleviating these problems. In the future, I see L.A. County forcing more
people to fly from regional airports instead of relying on LAX.

People countywide think that John Wayne will be there to take up the
slack. People outside of Newport Beach do not see John Wayne in a
realistic light. They should all drive through the area, take a tour, or at
least be given some statistics, and I think most people will be shocked
into reality.

* MARGIE SEEGMILLER is a Newport Beach resident.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.91 - 216.115.226.91) on Sunday,
 June 24, 2001 - 05:04 am:
 

Coad Petty, Misinformed on El Toro Facilities Use

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010624/t000052249.html
 

Re "Survey: S. County Primary User of El Toro Facilities," June 6:

Inspired by Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad's survey
of the people using the facilities at the former Marine Corps Air Station at
El Toro, I decided to conduct my own survey. Among the findings:

* The primary users of Orange County schools are children, not the
people who paid for them, some of whom don't even have kids.

* County vehicles are driven only by county employees, some of whom
don't even live in Orange County.

* County jails are used primarily by prisoners, including some who aren't
even citizens of this country, much less Orange County.

Of course the facilities at El Toro are used mainly by local residents!
Residents of other parts of the county have similar facilities in their own
areas. South County residents don't.

Judging by the thorough drubbing that her friend, Scott Steiner, just took
in the Orange City Council election, I suggest that [Coad] stop playing her
petty little games with the El Toro property, or else the taxpayers might
start asking why they're paying for a supervisor who isn't representing
them.

Brad McCown
Mission Viejo

There are about 1,000 motor homes, trailers and fifth-wheels now being
stored at El Toro on what was vacant land supporting nothing but weeds.
 

By painting some lines on the blacktop, we now have an operation that
generates revenue. Where does Cynthia Coad get the idea that this is a
"hobby" or "recreation"? Does she think we are camping out there? With
nearly 1,000 vehicles paying between $50 and $70 per month (plus a
$25 key deposit for the dump station), it would seem to me that her
claim of "subsidy" is indicative of some ignorance of the facts.

For her information, horseback riding and golf are hobbies and/or
recreation; storage (at a very high price) is not.

Don Borthwick
Joan Borthwick
San Clemente

Irvine Plans Homes, and Airport Tension Builds

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010624/t000052242.html

Re "Irvine Planning Homes for a No-Fly Zone," June 17:

There seems to be no end to the perfidy of the city of Irvine in pursuing
its jihad against the airport at El Toro.

First we heard that the city refuses to allow low-income Orange County
citizens to rent homes in the veritable town of vacant dwellings left
behind when the Marines vacated, as this occupancy might in some way
intrude upon their "Great Park."

Now the latest outrage: They are deliberately planning to build 2,500
homes in the extensive buffer zone that surrounds the El Toro airfield,
simply stating that as no airport will ever be built, it makes no difference.

What it will provide, very obviously, is 7,500 or so pitiful old folks,
innocent children, endangered golfers, etc., to be added to the number
who are already storming and carrying petitions against the badly needed
El Toro airport.

If they don't watch out, they will have people living as close to El Toro as
the people of Newport Beach are to John Wayne.
Keats Hayden
Newport Beach
 

Irvine has to be the most selfish, insensitive, vicious municipality in
California.

Betting on the outcome (no El Toro airport), it plans to build more than
2,500 homes near a potential flight path and thus continue its approval of
masses of new apartments, homes and development of industrial sites.

Over the past approximately five years, Irvine has paid no attention to
proliferation of traffic congestion nor to energy demands associated with
expanding a suburban community.

Neighboring Lake Forest notes the idea is not wise and so, I guess, we
must continue to hope that Irvine's El Toro panic and its drive for the tax
dollar will eventually drift off into the night in the form of a different City
Council.
Zane W. de Arakal
Irvine
 

Instead of publishing individual letters on the El Toro airport, The Times
should simply list the names and locations of the letter writers to spare
space for other subjects.

Most of us do not need the psychic hot-line to predict what a writer's
opinion would be by simply noting his place of residence.

Since we are all NIMBYs at heart, whether the El Toro airport be built or
not should be based solely on our future transportation needs instead of
the voters' sentiment at the moment.

Meanwhile, our county government should do all it can to halt Irvine's
preemptive strike in sabotaging the El Toro option until this important
issue is firmly settled.

Nonetheless, Irvine's action may be acceptable if all the residents of Irvine
and South County voluntarily relinquish their right to fly in and out of all
neighboring airports as part of the deal.

No one argues that we need to expand our transportation network. The
only issue is in whose backyard.
John T. Chiu
Newport Beach
 

I believe that the Camp Pendleton Marines can live with an international
airport provided it is carefully located on a causeway extending out into
the shallow offshore waters.

If so, then this answers the question: What are we going to do when El
Toro is replaced by a Central Park?

Orange County doesn't need or want an El Toro international airport.
What it does need is a regional transportation system to increase
direct-rail and freeway access to LAX and Ontario airports and commuter
friendly access to jobs inside Orange County.

Morning airport-bound traffic would be on the opposite side of the
freeway from incoming work-related traffic. Similarly, outbound airport
express trains would become commuter friendly locals on the return trip
into Orange County.

However, Orange County must plan now for the time when LAX and
Ontario reach their operational limits. A jointly sponsored Orange-San
Diego Pendleton International Airport will fulfill both counties' future needs.
Although the Pendleton location is remote from both urban areas, it is
easily accessible by existing rail and freeway.
David L. Hammond
Foothill Ranch
 

The June 3 letter quoting the Southern California Assn. of Governments
as being a reliable source in predicted air travel demand is quite laughable.
 

In 1982, SCAG predicted that by 1995 flight demand in the region's six
airports would reach 109.6 million air passengers. SCAG was a whopping
36 million passengers too high in its estimate. Even today, the actual
demand is still 21 million passengers fewer than what it predicted for
1995.

SCAG expected the idle Palmdale airport to be crowded with passengers
by now. Had SCAG's 1982 predictions been followed, we would have built
one more Southern California airport than we actually needed.

Now SCAG's crystal ball gazers want us to believe that air travel demand
will nearly double to 167 million annual passengers by 2020.

With such grandiose forecasts, one would expect Southern California's
passenger demand to keep increasing at a rapid pace. SCAG's forecasted
3.2% annual growth so far this year is not even close. Air traffic has
declined at the region's six airports compared to the same period last
year. John Wayne passengers are down by 4.6%

SCAG is just a political body with an agenda. And it is this sort of reckless
political forecasting that fuels the drive for an unneeded airport at El Toro.

Nicolas G. Dzepina

Mission Viejo

Ontario Is Better Site for Airport Than El Toro

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20010624/t000052239.html

Re "Ontario Can Be O.C.'s Airport," June 17:

John Walter Kraus' article is so far the best, if not the ultimate, solution to
the John Wayne Airport-El Toro airport controversy I've read since 1994.
 

His detailed proposal, simple and practical implementation with
substantive reasoning, is just fantastically credible.

It should be required reading by members of the El Toro Reuse Planning
Authority, Airport Working Group and their affiliates.
Sam Castelo
Irvine
 

Kraus is to be commended for his commentary.

It has amazed me that so much taxpayers' money from both sides has
been poured into lobbying and advertising and slick mailing campaigns and
no time seems to have been spent in thinking.

Both Ontario and Riverside want international airports, and neither Irvine
nor Newport Beach does. Moreover, for decades the truly great cities of
the world have refused to build airports in high-density housing
communities.

Instead, their leaders have shown vision, and now fast rail takes the
passengers and their luggage to airports outside the cities in much less
time than one can drive the already overcrowded freeways to LAX or
Ontario or San Diego.

When will we grow up, cease our parochialism and internecine battles and
cooperate to find the best solution for the citizens, for business and
especially for future generations?
Iryne Black
Newport Beach

 By northwood (24.4.254.62 - 24.4.254.62) on Sunday, June 24,
 2001 - 10:19 am:
 

League of Women Voters Would Keep All Cities Intact in O.C. Redistricting
 

http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/comment/20010624/t000052246.html
 

By DIANE TAYLOR

    Every decade, new census figures are used to redraw district
boundaries at the congressional, state legislative, and county levels to
create equitable-sized districts.
     The League of Women Voters of Orange County has submitted a plan
for supervisorial redistricting based primarily on not dividing any Orange
County city into more than one district.
     League positions, adopted after careful study, call for districts made
up of substantially equal populations, with geographic contiguity, and
respect for boundaries of cities. They also offer protection from diluting
the voting strength of a racial or linguistic minority, and support the
preservation and protection of communities of interest. At the same
time, the standards stress not allowing the goal of protecting incumbents
or preferential treatment of one political party.
     These league standards are similar to the factors in the California
Elections Code that are to be considered in establishing district
boundaries. These factors are topography, geography and community of
interests of the districts, and cohesiveness, contiguity, integrity and
compactness of territory.
     Keeping cities whole within one district and grouping similar cities
together with adjacent unincorporated areas fulfills both sets of
requirements.
     The league plan groups the various cities and adjacent unincorporated
areas into logical divisions, avoiding gerrymandering and the inclusion of
disparate areas of the county such as far northern areas being in the
same district with communities in South County. This has been
accomplished even with the restraints imposed by keeping intact the
large city of Anaheim, which almost divides the county.
     Racial and ethnic compositions are reflected in the population of
adjacent cities and are not the basis for the formation of any district. It is
not the purpose of this plan either to be overly inclusive or exclusive.
Community of interests is maintained through geographic utilization of
such county resources as libraries, parks, courts, social services, landfills
and transportation facilities.
     Within this plan, population of four of the five districts is virtually the
same. Only the southern district differs more than slightly, allowing for
growth in the planned communities already proposed and in areas where
development is expected. Undeveloped areas such as the foothill region
east of San Clemente and Newport Coast have been included in the
southern district.
     The central district is made up of Santa Ana, Tustin, Irvine and the
former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The northeast district
encompasses Brea, Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Villa Park, Orange and the
undeveloped area east of that city, including almost all of the
unincorporated canyon areas. The northwest district is made up of
Placentia, Fullerton, La Habra, Buena Park, La Palma, Stanton, Cypress
and Garden Grove.
     The western district includes Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach,
Huntington Beach, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and
Newport Beach. The plan submitted by the league was formulated using
logic rather than emotional or political reasons; it was not designed to
favor any area of the county or any interest group or supporters of any
current or aspiring supervisor.
     The League of Women Voters is a political organization, but it is
nonpartisan--never endorsing candidates and only taking positions on
political issues, such as propositions, after careful study. Major
community outreach by the league to all areas of Orange County occurs
with voter services activities. At each election, the league conducts more
than 100 proposition pros and cons and candidate forums.
     There is confusion about what level of government is responsible for
providing certain services; unhappiness about the level of cooperation
between city and county agencies, staff and elected officials; frustration
as to who one's supervisor is--especially in divided cities; a lack of
sensitivity regarding development in adjacent unincorporated areas; and
dissatisfaction with being part of a gerrymandered district made up of
dissimilar communities.
     The last 15 years have witnessed the formation of numerous new
cities and annexations. The county is now the chief governing body of an
ever-dwindling unincorporated area. City and county elected officials and
staff must work together to provide the entire range of required services.

     The league's plan of designing supervisorial districts using the criteria
of city boundaries is the only submission that keeps every city intact.
     All other plans under consideration have used different criteria in
determining both communities of interest and district boundaries.
Maintaining the integrity of the cities also maintains the integrity of the
process.
- - -
Diane Taylor Has Led the League of Women Voters' Study of Redistricting
in Orange County. She Lives in Brea

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.90 - 216.115.226.90) on Monday,
 June 25, 2001 - 06:02 am:
 

Coad drops her plan for redistricting.

http://www.ocregister.com/local/buzz00625cci.shtml

June 25, 2001

Orange County redistricting is proving to be the political brawl many
expected, with supervisors lining up for battle over the board majority's
push to pack opponents of an El Toro airport into one south-county
district. But this year's squabbles have lacked one common element of
past border fights: talk of lawmakers trying to use the process for
personal political benefit.

Until last week, that is. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia Coad
introduced a redistricting plan that would have left a slice of Anaheim out
of her 4th Supervisorial District. That chunk happened to include the
home of Mayor Tom Daly, the Democrat who many consider Coad's
toughest potential foe in her expected 2002 re-election bid.

But when The Buzz came calling on the supervisor for an explanation, she
backed off the redistricting plan - still insisting that Daly's placement a few
hundred yards out of her district was a byproduct of her efforts to
represent the unincorporated Colonia Independencia area.

Daly won't add fuel to the fire by commenting on Coad's map-making.
"It's not productive," he said.

But Daly does admit to interest in being a supervisor some day - from
whatever district he ends up in.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.101 - 216.115.226.101) on Monday,
 June 25, 2001 - 05:20 pm:
 

New Outlet To Reach People

Timing for this is excellent. Hopefully we will be able to reach out to far
more people through this site. I tried to hook up a few minutes ago, but
was given a notice that the site isn't ready yet.

I tried the below URL talk.ocregister.com but that got me nowhere. The
URL myOC.com got me to the main page.

"Today, the Register and its sister Web site, myOC.com launch a new
online community. It's a place where people in Orange County and
beyond can discuss common interests and concerns."

"Stories in the Register will refer you each day to specific discussions
online, but the O.C. Online Community is much more than that...it's
whatever its members decide it will be."

"It's a place where you can ask a question and have it answered halfway
across the county...across the country....or across the world. A place
where you can talk about your city, your schools, a favorite sports team
or the movie you saw last night. A place where you can reach out for
support, new ideas and friendship. Voices from the Register will be there
as well."

"So please acept our invitation to join the community at
talk.ocregister.com "

"It only takes a few minutes and once you're there, your voice can be
heard by anyone who's listening."

"Thanks. We look forward to seeing you there>"

"Tonnie L. Katz, Editor and senior vice president"

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.94 - 216.115.226.94) on Tuesday,
 June 26, 2001 - 06:07 am:
 

County remap hearing today

http://www.ocregister.com/local/redistrict00626cci.shtml

Board will review 14 proposals, with no input from anti-airport groups.
June 26, 2001

By CHRIS REED
The Orange County Register
Orange County supervisors will hold the first of three public hearings on
redrawing their district boundaries at 9:30 a.m. today.

The 14 redistricting plans being reviewed come from two supervisors and
a few civic-minded groups and individuals - but none from anti-El Toro
airport supervisors, cities or groups.

Many in the anti-airport camp have long predicted redistricting would
result in a push by the three pro-airport supervisors to create a fourth
pro-airport district.

Given the criticism, "It's disappointing that they didn't get involved in the
process," said James Campbell, an aide to pro-airport Supervisor Charles
V. Smith and chairman of a committee that did early redistricting work.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an airport foe, said he was waiting for public
input - but would be weighing in heavily now that the matter was before
the board.

Diane Taylor, who tracks redistricting for the League of Women Voters,
believes the final plan has yet to emerge, despite all the options already
before the board.

"The supervisors are going to say they have an open mind and listen to
everything, but I think they're more concerned ... with their needs,"
Taylor said.

Campbell crafted eight of the plans. The one he considers most likely to
win takes Mission Viejo and Lake Forest away from the 3rd Supervisorial
District to create an all south-county 5th district - a move airport foes
have long predicted.

Other plans emphasize Hispanic representation, Asian-American
representation, and the need to avoid splitting cities into two districts.

Supervisors hope to finish the redistricting process by August. The next
hearing after today will be held July 17.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.94 - 216.115.226.94) on Tuesday,
 June 26, 2001 - 06:16 am:
 

READERS RESPOND -- Why the discrepancy between Newport Beach and
county opinion on El Toro?
 

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010626/tdp0020522.html
 

AT ISSUE: Newport Beach-funded survey finds that about 80% of city's
residents want an airport at the closed base and continued JWA
restrictions.
 

Airports bring airplanes. Airplanes make noise. Newport Beach does not
like noise, and that is the reason for the discrepancy. That is why they
don't want an airport. That's why they do want an airport at El Toro. If
anybody gives you any other reason, they are not being truthful with
themselves.
GEORGE LAMPINEN
Newport Beach

I was not surveyed. I wasn't called. However, I am definitely for an
airport at El Toro. I think people are not looking into the future. It's really
the only good use of that land. We definitely are going to need something
like that, and we can't afford it around the present airport. So that's the
future. People aren't looking far enough ahead.
MARY BELINA
Costa Mesa

Regarding why the discrepancy between the countywide opinion and
Newport Beach's regarding the airport: I believe most people don't have
the facts or the vision. South County's offering a big, beautiful park
versus a big, bad, awful airport is the equivalent of asking a child if he
wants to go to school or play at Chuck E. Cheese all day.
KATHY BAMBECK
Newport Beach

I don't agree that the survey says residents welcome El Toro. I certainly
don't. We lived by John Wayne Airport for 11 years, and it was a beautiful
[area]. I think we moved down here in 1964, and after the jets went in in
1967, eventually we moved over here near the Fashion Island area in
1976.

And now it's getting so bad over here that I do not believe that either
John Wayne should be expanded or El Toro should be built, period.

The pilots don't want it. That mountain is hard to fly over. It should be
something other than what this article says. I don't know whose survey
this was, but it was definitely businesspeople or travel agents that like the
idea of taking off for the world from El Toro.

I think this survey was not done for all the citizens and residents and
voters of Newport Beach, let alone the whole area of Orange County.

My main thought is an airport should be built out in Ontario that's bigger.
Anyway, all of California isn't what it used to be.
SHIRLIE HARAMIA
Newport Beach

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.94 - 216.115.226.94) on Tuesday,
 June 26, 2001 - 06:23 am:
 

COMMUNITY COMMENTARY -- Bonnie O'Neil

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010626/tdp0020523.html
 

Those who want an El Toro airport need to fight
 

There are three main reasons for a discrepancy between countywide
opinion and Newport Beach regarding an airport at El Toro.

First, Newport Beach residents have been aware of air transportation
needs and problems for more than 20 years due to John Wayne Airport's
close proximity to the city. They have been forced into understanding this
issue far more than the average county citizen.

We know that all legitimate studies on future county air transportation
requirements indicate significant increases, and we cannot rely on other
airports, such as the already maxed-out Los Angeles International
Airport, but must wisely provide for that demand within Orange County.

Newport Beach clearly understands there are two choices: create a
commercial airport at the available El Toro site or expand JWA.

Physical evidence demonstrates JWA is far too small to adequately handle
future needs. It is on a bare 490 acres, while the El Toro property is
about 10 times larger at 4,700 acres. JWA already is considered one of
the more dangerous airports due to the combination of its having only
one small runway used for takeoffs, an enormous amount of small
aircraft that mingles with large jets in approach patterns, a most unusual
takeoff procedure necessary for sound mitigation, and most problematic
of all, homes, schools and businesses extremely close to the airport and
directly under the takeoff pattern.

The above circumstances have caused pilots to state that JWA is a major
accident waiting to happen. Yet without El Toro airport, JWA will expand
out of a growing need and we know the dangers will only increase. The
safety and quality of life for Newport Beach residents and other
surrounding neighborhoods would obviously be greatly compromised.

Second, activists against building an El Toro airport have been very
effective in putting forth blatant misinformation and in using scare tactics
to terrify people in South County cities and gain unwarranted sympathy
from North County citizens as well.

The horrors about El Toro portrayed in slick brochures and TV
advertisements are not realistic and can all be refuted with facts. Few of
those opposed to El Toro know about the 18,000 acres of a built-in
buffer zone that was purposely created by zoning laws to protect South
County residents from the noise and safety concerns.

A third reason for a lack of countywide support for El Toro is our own
fault. We have not performed as well as we should in getting out positive
information about the new airport to all county residents. Much of our
opposition's misinformation has gone unchallenged. The media has not
been our friend, and we have not come even close to matching the
anti-El Toro activists with money, effort, or passion. When people do not
have the whole truth, but instead only a steady stream of
misinformation, the results are obvious and evident.

Unless pro-El Toro airport leaders can develop a viable strategy, with
proper financial support, to reach all Orange County citizens with
information that challenges the lies they have come to believe,
countywide opinion will not change. We will experience a never-ending
need and pressure to expand JWA, which will begin happening within the
next couple of years, and our once beautiful city will become something
we do not want to even imagine.

We will also be stuck with a gigantic park at the El Toro site that will not
only be a financial burden to taxpayers but a sore remembrance of what
could have and should have been.

It is time for each of us to take action that will help prevent such a
scenario. One way to get more information and volunteer to help is to
access http://www.eltoronow.com .

* BONNIE O'NEIL is a member of the Airport Working Group and is a
Newport Beach resident.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.83 - 216.115.226.83) on Thursday,
 June 28, 2001 - 06:05 am:
 

READERS RESPOND

Why the discrepancy between Newport Beach and county opinion on El
Toro?

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010628/tdp0020578.html
 

***NOTE..the end of this article is a little screwed up, but it's exactly the
way it is printed in the LA Times (NPB Metro)

AT ISSUE: A survey funded by Newport Beach finds that about 80% of
those responding want an airport at the closed base and continued JWA
restrictions.
 

I'm not so impressed by the apparent discrepancy in opinions of the
proposed El Toro airport, as expressed by citizens of Newport Beach and
Costa Mesa compared with those countywide. People in general don't
want to live next to an airport.
The citizens of Orange County need to take three steps regarding future
airport transportation:

1. Work to maintain the restrictions on numbers of flights and times of
flights out of John Wayne Airport.

2. Work to ensure that the proposed El Toro airport is never built.

3. Use the funds that would have been spent to develop an airport at El
Toro or to expand John Wayne Airport to build a light-rail transportation
system to the Ontario airport. The Ontario airport is underutilized, and
evidence indicates that that airport is looking for additional activity.
RICHARD ROBERTSON
Costa Mesa

As Regis Philbin might ask George Argyros and the millionaire developers
of Newport Beach about the airport at El Toro: "Do you want to do a
50-50 or call someone with your last lifeline? So, is that your final, final
answer?"
RON WINSHIP
Newport Beach

In my opinion, one of the reasons is that the Newport Beach survey was
unreliable, inaccurate and biased in its formulation and execution.
According to the article ("Survey says residents welcome El Toro," June
21), the survey was requested by and paid for by the city of Newport
Beach.

The city is spending more than $3 million to promote an El Toro airport.

Citizens for the Jobs and the Economy, a pro-El Toro group oversaw the
polling. Do you honestly think the city and a pro-El Toro group would
formulate, conduct and publish a survey that was unfavorable to them? A
little study of the mailings and ads of the pro-El Toro group will show
widespce look more like a dining rather than nightclubbing establishment.

A retail area, which includes a fresh seafood counter and a gift shop, will
also add to the theme-restaurant atmosphere.

The menu includes shrimp buckets and lobster cakes for appetizers and
entrees such as "Maui Kabob" and "Tequila BBQ New York steak," most
of which stay below $20.

During the week, Teffeteller plans to stay open until about 11 p.m.,
extending hours to 2 a.m. on weekends. He'll also serve lunch all week
and breakfast on weekends. A champagne brunch is planned for Sundays.
 

Nearby merchants said they were pleased with Teffeteller's plans.

Britt -- "No last name, just like Cher or Madonna" -- who designs fashion
and accessories and has a store next to the restaurant, said she
welcomed the change.

"It will only create more business," said Britt, who is married to former
City Council candidate Dennis Lahey. "I wish them the very best. If [the
restaurant] has a pulse, the rest of the village will have a pulse."

Edie Calvetti, who works at another fashion store in the village, agreed.

"We've had a lot of bad experiences with the restaurant down there," she
said, adding that The Warehouse restaurant, Buzz's predecessor, had
drawn huge crowds that also stopped by other shops.

"I can't wait for them to open," Calvetti said. "This area needs walk
traffic. We pay a lot of rent, and you have to have a lot of merchandise
turnover or you're gone."

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.83 - 216.115.226.83) on Thursday,
 June 28, 2001 - 06:25 am:
 

Mayor Has Answer To County Lawsuit

By: Cheryl Walker
Leisure World News
June 28, 2001

The city is finally speaking up on the lawsuit filed by the County of Orange
on June 18, protesting its general plan and amendments removing airport
language from the plan's text.

On last Thursday's "leisure World Today on channel 6 (Leisure World
Cable channel), Laguna Woods mayor Bo Bouer, speaking from a
prepared statement, noted that, following a recent suit by the Golden
Rain Foundation against the United States, the Navy affirmed that the
former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro was no more and reconveyed
all avigation easements to property owners under the flyover zone.

He said the city's general plan and amendments only conformed to that
"current reality."

Said Bouer, "The general plan, specific plan and zoning ordinance now
afford no safe harbor for airport operations at El Toro MCAS (and) any
aircraft operations that may subsequently be established at El Toro MCAS
is now on notice that it will be responsible for any damage to persons or
property that may result from such operations.

"The county in its legal actions acknowledges the harmful physical effects
that are inherent in airport operations in residential areas; by its action
the city revoked all governmental permission for airport operations over
the City of Laguna Woods and has preserved for itself and its residents
the right to seek compensation for such damages should airport
operations ever be permitted at El Toro MCAS."

Bouer ended by noting that the city acted in accordance with California
law and, in the interests of health, safety and general welfare of its
residents."

 By northwood (12.106.64.19 - 12.106.64.19) on Thursday, June
 28, 2001 - 09:03 am:
 

The Real LAX Issue: Safety - LA Times editorial

http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010628/t000053151.html

Those for or against the $12-billion Los Angeles International Airport
expansion need to set aside their differences long enough to address the
one thing that matters most, whether the airport grows or stays the
same size: safety.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration study released last week,
Los Angeles International Airport leads the nation's busiest airports in the
number of near collisions on runways. News like that should be as hard to
ignore as, well, a Boeing 737 barreling down a runway, but experience
tells us otherwise.
Take Burbank, where years of lawsuits and delays have kept the
Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport from replacing a terminal built for
biplanes that is now too close to the runway to meet modern safety
standards. Airport opponents see the proposed terminal as a Trojan
horse for more flights and more noise and congestion. They rationalize
their obstructionist tactics by saying that no plane has run into the old
terminal yet.
The same could be said of near collisions at LAX. Close calls are rare,
actual collisions much rarer. But in 1991 a departing commuter plane
collided with an arriving jet, killing 34. Aviation history's worst accident
was a 1977 runway collision between two Boeing 747s in the Canary
Islands that killed 582. Do we really want to pin our safety on the word
"yet"?
Since deregulation of the airline industry left growth to the market, not
local governments, frustrated airport neighbors across the country have
adopted a scorched-earth approach to limiting noise and traffic. If
improvements to aging, crowded airports can be blocked, they reason,
then airlines will be forced to take their business elsewhere.
The problem is that most aging, crowded airports need updating to safely
and efficiently handle the business they have now. And then there's the
need to meet soaring passenger and cargo demands, but that's a topic
for another day. Given the forces arrayed against expansion, the fastest
way to fix safety problems is to separate the two issues.
Opponents of LAX expansion say they support safety improvements, just
not changes that would allow the airport to handle more planes. This gets
complicated when some changes--say, adding parallel taxiways between
runways--would increase both safety and capacity.
As a candidate, Mayor-elect James K. Hahn initially gave the expansion
plan his qualified support. As the race heated up, he signed a pledge to
oppose it. To Mayor Hahn will fall the hard task of separating urgent
safety needs from the contentious expansion debate--and convincing
those whose support he courted to do the same.

 By Logic.in.LN (64.60.12.231 - 64.60.12.231) on Thursday, June
 28, 2001 - 10:53 am:
 

Gary Simon LRA Guru writes to the Register...

Informing public on airport

In response to recent articles and letters suggesting the county of Orange
is using tax dollars to fund public relations efforts for the county's
proposed reuse plan for El Toro, we wanted to set the record straight.

The El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority has approved $8 million for a
public information program to facilitate the outreach effort portion of the
draft environmental impact report (EIR) 573 process. These funds are
generated from parking and concession revenues at John Wayne Airport,
not taxpayer money. John Wayne Airport and El Toro Airport are a
two-airport system allowing the county to utilize revenue generated from
John Wayne to support planning and implementation of the reuse plan for
El Toro.

It is important to note that a majority of money, approximately $40
million, spent by the county to date has been toward required studies to
measure the project's impact on the environment and develop the
county's proposed master plan and other alternatives. The El Toro LRA is
eager to provide information to the county's almost 3 million residents
about El Toro airport through its "Just the Facts'' program that will begin
in August.

Gary Simon
Santa Ana

Mr. Simon is executive director of El Toro LRA.

Why has the county spent $40 Million and not presented any facts in the
studies done so far. Why after 7 years will the county now finally present
some "facts". I won't hold my breath... county "facts" are usually noting
but hot air, just what we will need more of in August.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.88 - 216.115.226.88) on Friday, June
 29, 2001 - 04:30 am:
 

Latest ruling is for $85,000. All told, the county has been ordered to pay
$520,000 to the anti-airport cities for attorney fees.

June 29, 2001

By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
 

A court commissioner Thursday ordered Orange County to pay $85,000
in attorney fees for a coalition of anti-airport cities who sued the county
to challenge its use of a private attorney on the El Toro airport project.

The decision by Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Jane Myers
brings to more than $520,000 the amount of attorney fees the county
has paid the anti-airport cities in several different lawsuits over El Toro.

The most recent lawsuit was settled last year without the county or its
outside attorney, Michael Gatzke, admitting any wrongdoing, although
Gatzke agreed to pay the cities $12,000 in court costs and cannot work
on new cases for the county without proper approval by county
supervisors.

Officials with the anti-airport cities, however, said they see the $85,000
in attorneys fees granted them Thursday as proof that they were in the
right in this case.

"To get to that point, the judge had to conclude that we were a
successful plaintiff in the litigation,'' said Rich Jacobs, an attorney for the
cities.

However, County Counsel Laurence M. Watson said the cities coalition
cannot claim a complete victory, given that they had asked for $322,000
in attorney fees and only received about one-quarter of that.

"She obviously felt they were entitled to something, but not $322,000,''
Watson said.

The attorney fees won by the anti-airport cities from the county in this
and several earlier lawsuits has been used partly to reduce the amount of
money member cities have paid as dues, and partly for extra
public-relations work, such as anti-airport mailers, said Paul Eckles,
executive director of the group.

The cities coalition had budgeted $900,000 for litigation during the fiscal
year about to end, and has budgeted $1.4 million for the new fiscal year,
Eckles said.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.88 - 216.115.226.88) on Friday, June
 29, 2001 - 04:47 am:
 

Local El Toro alternative gaining altitude

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010629/tdp0020646.html
 

Plan to change the runways at the proposed airport still faces tough
opposition.

By PAUL CLINTON

NEWPORT BEACH -- Charles Griffin is getting some respect.

During recent weeks, Griffin's alternative runway plan for the closed El
Toro Marine Corps Air Station, dismissed by county planners, has been
gaining momentum.

In a June 18 letter to Griffin and his supporters, the Orange County
Regional Airport Authority, a coalition of 14 North County cities,
announced its support for formal federal review of the proposal.

"I encourage you to consult with experts . . . to ensure that your
proposal is submitted with the proper information and in the proper form
to enable a timely analysis, review and validation," wrote Art Bloomer,
the authority's executive director.

The letter echoed comments by a pilots group, which said in May it would
lobby the Federal Aviation Administration on behalf of Griffin's plan.

Under Griffin's scenario, the cross-shaped runways at the base would be
reconfigured into a V shape. The plan is known colloquially as the
"V-plan."

Griffin, a retired aviation engineer and Newport Beach resident, has joined
with activist Russell Niewiarowski and Villa Park Mayor Robert McGowan
to form The New Millennium Group to promote the plan.

The group, which is in the process of becoming a political action
committee, has announced plans to circulate a petition that would put the
plan, officially known as the Wildlands Ranch Alternative, to a public vote
in March.

"They want to know more," Niewiarowski said about the letter. "They
want to move forward. I take it as a positive."

The county analyzed the V-plan in its environmental review of the airport,
which is proposed to handle 28.8 million passengers. The FAA has refused
to review the V-plan because it has not been endorsed by the county.

In his letter, Bloomer said Gary Simon, the director of the Local
Redevelopment Authority, also supports federal review of the plan.

Niewiarowski said Simon suggested the group take the V-plan to voters.

Simon, who was on vacation, could not be reached for comment.

The plan was rejected by the county because it forces more flights over
homes in the community of Newport Coast, as well as land in southwest
Irvine set to be developed into housing by the Irvine Co.

Also, fewer planes would be able to land under present operating
conditions, a county El Toro planner Bryan Speegle said.

"We feel it should be reviewed," Speegle said. "We feel that it is feasible. .
. . [But] it has a lower capacity and higher impacts."

Newport Beach officials have been reluctant to buy off on Griffin's plan,
saying it would delay the hand-over of the base from the Navy to the
county, jeopardizing the project.

Newport Beach Councilman Dennis O'Neil said he shares those concerns
with colleague Gary Proctor.

"It would just shift the impact [of an airport] to a whole new
constituency," O'Neil said.

 By parrotpaul (216.115.226.88 - 216.115.226.88) on Friday, June
 29, 2001 - 04:58 am:
 

Readers Respond (Corrected version from LA Times, NPB Metro
6/28/01)

READERS RESPOND -- Why the discrepancy between Newport Beach and
county opinion on El Toro?

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/newport_beach_metro/20010628/tdp0020578.html
 

AT ISSUE: A survey funded by Newport Beach finds that about 80% of
those responding want an airport at the closed base and continued JWA
restrictions.
 

I'm not so impressed by the apparent discrepancy in opinions of the
proposed El Toro airport, as expressed by citizens of Newport Beach and
Costa Mesa compared with those countywide. People in general don't
want to live next to an airport.

The citizens of Orange County need to take three steps regarding future
airport transportation:
1. Work to maintain the restrictions on numbers of flights and times of
flights out of John Wayne Airport.
2. Work to ensure that the proposed El Toro airport is never built.
3. Use the funds that would have been spent to develop an airport at El
Toro or to expand John Wayne Airport to build a light-rail transportation
system to the Ontario airport. The Ontario airport is underutilized, and
evidence indicates that that airport is looking for additional activity.
RICHARD ROBERTSON
Costa Mesa

As Regis Philbin might ask George Argyros and the millionaire developers
of Newport Beach about the airport at El Toro: "Do you want to do a
50-50 or call someone with your last lifeline? So, is that your final, final
answer?"
RON WINSHIP
Newport Beach

In my opinion, one of the reasons is that the Newport Beach survey was
unreliable, inaccurate and biased in its formulation and execution.
According to the article ("Survey says residents welcome El Toro," June
21), the survey was requested by and paid for by the city of Newport
Beach.

The city is spending more than $3 million to promote an El Toro airport.

Citizens for the Jobs and the Economy, a pro-El Toro group oversaw the
polling. Do you honestly think the city and a pro-El Toro group would
formulate, conduct and publish a survey that was unfavorable to them? A
little study of the mailings and ads of the pro-El Toro group will show
widespread distortions of facts, inappropriate extrapolations of data,
misleading arguments and out-of-context quotes.

Bruce Nestande, president of the pro-airport group, refused to reveal the
name of the polling firm that conducted the survey. How can we
determine the reliability and credentials of this unnamed firm? The phone
survey was conducted with 250 households. No information is given as
to how these households were selected. Is it possible that the unnamed
firm used a reverse telephone directory to select addresses most
adversely affects by John Wayne Airport for their survey?

The Daily Pilot should also be faulted for again using inaccurate and
misleading headlines and news reports. Contrary to the headlines in the
June 26 Community Forum, it was not 80% of the city's residents but
80% of the 250 responses reported in the telephone survey that were in
favor of an airport at El Toro and continued restrictions at JWA.
WAYNE J. SUBCASKY
Newport Beach

Who's kidding who, or trying to?

There's no discrepancy. It's because of the slick media and millions from
some of the South County cities and the zealots who administrate them.
The whole program is about money, greed and 18,000 acres that the
above people want to develop. Wake up, Orange Countians, and smell
the coffee.
CORTLAND SPARRE
Balboa Peninsula

 By EDITOR (24.4.255.248 - 24.4.255.248) on Friday, June 29,
 2001 - 08:24 am:
 

OC Register Letters, June 29
(Not on line yet but I had my e-mail copy. Philip Horn of MV also had a
letter on this topic)

Taxpayers are being taken

Gary Simon, the County's head of the El Toro program, attempts to
justify the $8 million authorized by Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad for
pro-airport PR. ("Informing public on airport", June 28, 2001)

Simon papers over the huge waste of money by saying it is "for a public
information program to facilitate the outreach effort portion of the draft
environmental impact report process." I challenge Simon, or anyone, to
find another environmental impact report anywhere, ever, that needed
$8 million to "facilitate outreach".

Simon admits that the $8 million is on top of approximately $40 million of
other public money already spent "to measure the project's impact on
the environment" and develop the County's El Toro plan - which has yet
to see the light of day.

The public's money is going for pure and simple propaganda - in a blatant
attempt to block passage of the Orange County Central Park and Nature
Preserve Initiative. The popular initiative will change El Toro's use, from
commercial airport to a mix of parks, schools, health care facilities,
cultural uses and recreation. The voters will decide the initiative on March
5, 2002.

Leonard Kranser